The Devil's Stallion
by Look-Out-Here-Comes-Tom
Summary: An evil more ancient than Celestia herself has arisen, plunging Equestria into a dire fate worse than death. But Celestia has found a damaged scroll containing the Spell of Unity, which may be Equestria's last hope! This fic was intended to be easy to base a video game off of.
1. Chapter 1: Rude Awakening

Foreword:

I'd like to say that I created this fanfiction specifically with the idea in mind that it would be easy to convert it into a video game. My actual inspiration for it was the music that Odyssey Eurobeat and others were putting on youtube; in particular, the "Vs. Psychoshy" music caught my interest-it starts out sounding like you've walked into a Pokemon Center or something (which you could easily compare Fluttershy's cottage to), and then, after a few measures, the music suddenly twists into what sounds like an intense battle. While listening to that particular piece, I could easily picture Fluttershy flying around in a Mega-Man-Esque battle, flying at you, up and down, and sending animals at you as projectile attacks. The ideas for this narrative started with that scene, and I began building upon and around that scene, as I got more and more ideas for additional backstory and context, and as other scenes and video game elements occurred to me that I knew I wanted to be part of this narrative.

Given how many people are making fan-productions of My Little Pony, including video games, it felt appropriate that I'd put this fiction out there for anyone-including Hasbro, if they (miraculously) feel so inclined-to use for their own works. (Heck, someday I might even try to make a game out of it, myself, if someone else doesn't beat me to it!)

I expect, and don't have a problem with, this story being revised and re-written, things added to it, removed, or changed, in the process of making it a game-or in the process of making it anything else, for that matter. For instance, the effects of Twilight's magic, Fluttershy's animals, or Applejack's kick in your works might not be exactly what I'm writing here, or different locations might be added, reordered, changed from how I've written them, or skipped altogether. Different rules about how the Spell of Unity or other elements of the story work could be added, changed, or removed in the process of adaptation, as well. In fact, some fellow fans might end up borrowing just one or two elements from this story in their own works simply because they like those elements, and I'm fine with that, too. This was specifically intended for others to build upon it, extract things from it, or make what they will of it.

I hope that you like it, and I also hope that it's an enjoyable read in its own right.

EDIT: I'd like to add that, having read this over, there are a few big reasons why it would be terrible as a game, and many small reasons why it would be terrific as a game-if that makes any sense. The overall tone of the story is a little too dark (though not immensely so), it's too short, the name isn't something a mother would look at in GameStop and think to herself "That's perfect for my six-year-old daughter!", and there isn't nearly enough humor. All that being said, there's a lot of video game ideas and plot elements to be gleaned from this narrative, so it was far from a waste of my time to write it; a video game _loosely_ based on ideas in this fic could still be excellent.

THE DEVIL'S STALLION

Chapter 1:

"BRRRRAAAAARRPP!"

Twilight awoke to a very rude noise. She wished she were too groggy to say it, but it was too close to dawn, and Spike's belch was too loud to even pretend to sleep through. She groaned, "Spike, will you quit eating emeralds so close to bedtime? You know what they do to you...! It's too early in the morning for this!"

Spike groaned back, and just as groggily answered, "Twilight, I haven't had emeralds all week! It's a letter!"

"A letter?! At this hour?!" the words rolled off of Twilight's tongue as if they were as tired as she was. "You can't tell me the Princess is sending us letters just before dawn!"

Spike blew fire onto a candle and looked the scroll over. He immediately became more awake as he realized what it was. "It's got the Princess's royal seal on it! It's _got_ to be from her!"

"Great. She wouldn't send it at this hour if it wasn't urgent...ohhhhh, it's too early in the morning for _urgent_!" Of course, Twilight didn't let that stop her from reading it. Spike already had it unfurled by the time she dragged herself out of bed and put herself between the light and the scroll so she could read it. It was very hastily horn-written, which wasn't like the Princess at all, but it was still very legible:

_My Dearest Twilight,_

_I may already be too late in sending you this letter. I have seen a magical corruption spreading throughout Equestria, and you and your friends may be the only ones who can stop it. Even I do not understand it, but anypony who comes under its effect becomes enraged, their eyes turn black and red, and they relentlessly attack anypony they see who isn't also under the corruption's effect. And whenever a corrupted pony touches an uncorrupted one, the corruption spreads. Soon, all of Equestria will be under this spell's influence, and I fear that nopony will ever feel anything other than anger ever again unless we stop this spell._

_I have researched this, but I have only been able to find one document about this effect in my secret vaults. It is an old ponytale, one that even I didn't believe was true before I saw the corruption spreading. But it speaks of a demon in the shape of a pony who rules over the dark afterlife, consuming the souls of all the ponies who wasted their lives in hatred, as they waste their eternities in hatred as well. The ponytale spoke of his ambition to gain control over the lands of the living, his ability to create this corruption, and that the only thing that could protect against his influence was to be under the Spell of Unity._

_I know that there is no magic in all Equestria stronger than the Elements of Harmony, so I am unlocking the elements and will have them to you as soon as I can. But hide yourself and anyone else you can; I am writing this hoping that you haven't been corrupted, yourself, and that Ponyville has not yet been touched by the corruption. If it has, all may well be lost._

_I will be coming to you promptly to bring you and your friends the Elements, and I will have the Spell of Unity prepared. There is no time for pomp and ceremony: the fate of Equestria and all ponykind hangs in the balance._

_Your Princess,_

_Celestia_

Spike and Twilight looked at each other in frightened bewilderment. Spike gulped. "What do we do?"

Pale, rainbow light filtered down the library's chimney, and soot rustled down the flue. Twilight stiffened herself for battle and readied her magic, and blew out the candle to keep herself hidden. Spike gulped, but readied himself for a fight, as well. Twilight whispered, "If it's a corrupted pony, I'll hold him or her at bay with my magic. Then you run to the basement and see what you can do to block the door so we can keep ourselves barricaded in."

"But...but there's no telling how long we'd have to stay down there, and there's no food in the basement! We'll _starve_!"

Twilight's stomach gurgled at the thought of starving; she was beginning to get hungry for breakfast. But she knew it was better to starve than to become corrupted, and she couldn't think of a solution, so she only whispered back, "Shh!"

The light got brighter, and the source of it quickly slipped down. It was a glowing orb, flashing colors that reminded Twilight of the Princess's mane and coat. Twilight gazed at it for a moment as it filled the room with beautiful light, confused about what this orb could be-she'd studied magic since she was a little filly, but hadn't seen or read or even heard of anything like this before.

"Oh, Twilight! Thank heavens you aren't corrupted, yet!" It was the Princess's voice, and it was coming from the orb.

"Princess?"

"I'm in spirit form, Twilight-it's a side effect of the Spell of Unity. There's no time to explain how it works. Just hold still."

Twilight did as she was told and held still as the orb floated towards her and a strange light enveloped her whole body. She felt a strange sensation that she couldn't have described if someone had asked her what it was like. But she knew that, in some strange way, she and the Princess had become one, even though they were still different beings and different minds.

"Are you okay, Twilight?" Spike asked.

"I think so," Twilight answered, still a little overwhelmed, and still pretty tired from the sudden awakening.

"There's no time to lose, Twilight. Find your friends. We'll need to join them to the Spell of Unity as well, to make them immune to the corruption. They may have already succumbed to the corruption: while I was flying in, I saw that many ponies in Ponyville have already been corrupted!"

Twilight gulped audibly.

"But even if they are corrupted, there is a way to reverse the corruption. The Spell of Unity has many side effects, and because your special talent is magic, one of the side effects is that you will be able to fire arrows of pure light from your horn. Anypony hit with those arrows will have the corruption removed from them, but be warned: you mustn't use any magic other than these arrows of light, or the Spell of Unity will be disrupted."

Twilight nodded. "I guess I'd better go out right now, and-"

Twilight's thoughts were thoroughly interrupted as the door burst open, and a pony was at the door-it was the Mayor. Her eyes were black where they should have been white, and her irises and pupils were disturbingly small, glowing a fiery blood red. The expression on her face was one of focused hate and rage. The sight of the Mayor in this state sent shivers down Twilight's spine, but she knew she couldn't hesitate.

The Mayor charged at Twilight. Her first instinct was to use magic to teleport behind the Mayor, but she caught herself before she tried that-literally five seconds ago, the Princess had warned her not to use any magic besides the arrows of light. Instead, she summoned all her strength and _leaped_ over the Mayor. The Mayor was suddenly confused-no less enraged, but confused, not knowing whether she should keep charging to attack Spike, or turn around and attack Twilight. After half a second of deliberating, she decided to try to turn around and charge Twilight.

Spike, for his part, wasn't sure what to do: he didn't want to touch the Mayor and get corrupted, and he didn't want to use his fire breath on her and hurt her, either-he didn't seem to have any options for fighting back; he only stood still, half cowering, half wondering where to run.

But he didn't need to fight back: Twilight fired an arrow straight at the Mayor, and her eyes went back to normal. The Mayor seemed in a daze for a moment, but after blinking, she seemed to come back to her senses. "Twilight Sparkle? I...I apologize for what must seem to you to be-"

"There's no time," Celestia insisted. "You and Spike must hide in the basement at once! Twilight, find your friends."

Twilight bolted out the door and shouted over her shoulder, "Sorry, no time to explain!" She wished there were more time to explain-for that matter, she'd like some explanations, herself. But she'd seen problems spread exponentially before: she'd seen what the Parasprites did, reproducing at an incredible rate, and if she and her friends had only listened to Pinkie Pie's warnings and asked a few questions, it wouldn't have taken months of work and incredible amounts of money to repair the whole town. She felt like she was partly responsible for the damage, too, since it was her spell that had changed the Parasprites' appetite so that they consumed everything _but_ the food, and she didn't want to be responsible for something like that again. So she took the hint from the Princess's tone and hurried.

But no sooner had Twilight come out the door of the library than random, black-eyed ponies began charging her, determined to either spread the corruption to her or pound her to dust. So many of them were faces that she had passed a hundred times on the streets, in the shops or restaurants, or even at the library. It was horribly unsettling to see all love, all joy, all _normalcy_ drained from their faces, and hatred against _her_ put in their place. She kept running, not sure where she should go, first. Nor was she sure how she could possibly fight so many ponies; there had to be dozens of them-and only one of her. But she knew she'd be surrounded quickly if she didn't do _something_, so she fired a few arrows randomly at the crowd following her, hoping for the best. The result shocked her: even though only three or four ponies at most became uncorrupted, the entire herd of ponies stopped chasing her and began charging the ponies who had been uncorrupted. One of the uncorrupted ponies screamed and ran away from the herd, leading them all away from Twilight.

It was horrifying to think of the fear that one uncorrupted pony must have been experiencing, having to run from her neighbors, friends, and family for dear life, but Twilight knew that the best thing she could do for that pony was to complete the mission Celestia had given her-she knew it, and she'd do it, but it still cut her up inside that she couldn't help that poor, screaming filly.

Twilight raced toward the closest place she could think of: Sugarcube Corner. The thought of Pinkie being taken over by the corruption was a sickening one; though Twilight didn't like to admit it, she had warmed up a lot to Pinkie over the years she'd known her-not just _despite_ her hyperactivity and childish behavior, but in some ways, _because_ of it. She _was_ fun to be around when you were looking for a good time, and beyond that, she was a very affectionate and loyal friend, however crazy she was.

Twilight had to push these heartwarming thoughts about her friend out of her mind as she came up on Sugarcube Corner. She was worried that there might be corrupted ponies inside the bakery, but she didn't have time to find out: the window to Pinkie's apartment flew open, and Pinkie flung a twinking, gemmed key out of the window into a pile of junk that was uncharacteristically sitting outside the building.

"HA! You pony zombies will NEVER get me now! Not even through the window!" Pinkie shouted, and before Twilight could shout up to her to come down, she slammed the window, and it locked tight with a "click".

"Pinkie, come down from there!" Twilight shouted. "The Princess has a plan to save Equestria from the dark magic, but we need the elements of harmony to make it work! Come on!" Twilight listened intently for an answer, but she didn't hear a thing. Pinkie must not have heard her!

Twilight's mind raced: the only way to get to Pinkie was to get the key. But looking for the key in that pile of junk would literally be like looking for a needle in a haystack; there just plain wasn't time to look through it all. Plus, Twilight couldn't lift the junk up with her magic, or else she'd disrupt the Spell of Unity: she'd need to use her hooves and mouth to move it all. That would take even _longer_! If only there were a pony who was good at finding things-

_Rarity_! Rarity's gem-finding ability might be able to find that key in that pile of junk! It had a gem, after all. And even if it wasn't a _real _gem, at least Rarity would be able to use her horn magic to lift the junk and look faster than Twilight could. Twilight raced to Rarity's nearby boutique, only to find that a huge stone had been put in front of the entrance-it was Tom, the same boulder that she had mistaken for a giant diamond while under DisQord's illusion. Twilight's first thought was to move it with magic; she'd moved things a lot bigger than that rock with magic, before. But then she remembered the Princess's warnings and knew that option wasn't available. She wished she were strong enough to move that rock with her muscles alone, but she was disappointingly physically weak, and she knew it. If only she were strong like Applejack-!

_Applejack_! Of course! She was a hard worker and used to hauling and lifting heavy stuff; _she'd _be able to help move that stone! Twilight turned around and raced toward Sweet Apple Acres, hoping that the herd that had followed her wasn't waiting in ambush.

Of course more ponies noticed her, and charged her again. This time, she had some idea what to do: she fired arrows at the ponies that were on the fringes of the herd-far to the left or far to the right, and then the whole herd broke off their pursuit of her and began pursuing the uncorrupted ones. Some part of Twilight objected: she was, after all, _using_ those other ponies by uncorrupting them and letting them distract the others. She remembered the ethics lessons she had learned in school, and how Immanuel Kanter had insisted that ponies should _never _be used as a means to an end. But then again, what choice did she have? And what would really happen? The moment another pony touched them, they'd just be corrupted again, and then the terror would be over.

...only to be replaced by hate.

It was absolutely _sickening _to think of what was happening to all Ponyville and what she had to do to survive, so Twilight pushed the thoughts out of her mind and focused on the task at hoof. She kept running to the farm-but she skidded to a stop as she saw that the irrigation ditch surrounding Sweet Apple Acres, while empty of water, was completely full of small animals-and each of them was corrupted. Rabbits and squirrels who would normally ignore Twilight were swarming at her, teeth bared, eyes blazing red, all of them trying to jump up and snap at her. They couldn't jump up the height of the ditch, but even if she was safe from them, the sight was a new flavor of disturbing: the corruption had leeched everything good out of the ponies, and they were intelligent beings. But the corruption had also leeched everything cute out of these unreasoning animals, as well, and made them into something that simultaneously scared Twilight and weirded her out.

She stared at the seething, shrieking balls of bristled fur and teeth for a few moments, pondering the horror and wondering whether there was a way over the ditch. She looked up at the other side, and decided that she couldn't jump that distance, even with a running start. Was there anything she could use to make a bridge? ...If she could use her magic any way she liked, she could probably knock a tree over and use that for a bridge, but that wasn't an option. She fired a few arrows at some of the animals on the other side of the ditch, hoping that that would be enough to distract them so she could climb down, get to the other side of the ditch, and climb back out. But that didn't work, either; there were too many animals, and too few of them were actually distracted-it was as if Twilight were a more tempting target than their fellow uncorrupted little critters. Twilight began to despair of ever getting past this obstacle; she knew she was running out of time! If only Fluttershy were there; she'd know what to do with animals-

_Fluttershy_! That's it! Twilight began racing for Fluttershy's cottage. The cottage was on the outskirts of Ponyville, so there were fewer corrupted ponies that saw and attacked her-but when they did, Twilight knew what to do: she fired arrows at the stragglers, and that distracted the mob long enough for her to escape. But as she got closer and closer to Fluttershy's cottage, she saw fewer and fewer corrupted creatures. She saw a squirrel in a tree that looked at her with curiosity, not hatred, and had normal, shiny, black eyes. That gave Twilight a huge relief; _maybe_ the corruption hadn't spread as far as Fluttershy's cottage! Maybe she was safe!

A friendly face would've been like a drink of cool water in a desert, right about then, and Twilight was suddenly very much looking forward to seeing Fluttershy. After all, she was always gentle and kind-the polar opposite of the rage, cruelty, and determined hate Twilight had seen in every other pony's face since she woke up. And it was awful to be alone out there with only her horrifying thoughts to keep her company-yes, the Princess was with her, but she was being awfully quiet; it made Twilight wonder if she was in some kind of a trance-it might be a side effect of the Spell of Unity; the Princess _did_ say there were many side effects.

The door to Fluttershy's cottage was wide open, but Fluttershy herself was nowhere to be seen. Twilight knew that it was rude to just walk in without being invited, but time was so short-anything could bring the corruption into Fluttershy's house at any time: a bird, a rabbit, another pony. There was no time to be polite. Twilight rushed in, hoping Fluttershy would be inside, and slammed the door behind her, hoping to at least slow down anypony or anything that might have followed her without her knowing.

Fluttershy was in the living room, at the opposite side of the house, looking into one of the many birdhouses she kept. Her back was to Twilight, but she seemed normal enough.

Twilight was panting and agitated, not sure where to begin explaining what was going on. She suddenly felt confused as the adrenaline began to fade from her system, and her stomach gurgled a little and her hunger caught up with her-the stress of the morning and of all the running and fighting clouded her mind for a moment. She shook her head and tried to concentrate; there was an _urgent_ need for her to quickly explain the situation to her friend; she couldn't be slowed down by stress, not _now_! ...But where to _begin_...?

She decided to start with her rude entry: "Sorry for coming in so fast, Fluttershy, but...things are going _crazy_ in town!" Twilight paused to catch her breath. "There's this magical..._corruption_ that's turning everypony into...I dunno..._zombies_ or something! The Princess wrote me a letter about it and somehow gave me immunity to it with something called the Spell of Unity. I don't understand it myself, but we need to get to the others so we can use the Elements of Harmony again. But...well, right now, I'm just glad _you're _safe, at least. It's been _awful _to see everypony in town corrupted! They look so angry and hateful-ugh! It gives me the creeps in so many different ways! ...You wouldn't _believe _how much I was looking forward to seeing a friendly face while I was coming here!"

Twilight spoke too soon, and her heart sank: Fluttershy turned around, and the gentle, shy, kind face Twilight was used to seeing-was twisted into a cruel, joyless scowl with black, burning eyes. "NO!" Twilight screamed, horrified that Fluttershy's timid, sweet personality had been defiled and overwritten by this dark magic!

Fluttershy took off, and a flock of birds flew out of their houses and swarmed around her. Twilight tried to fire an arrow of light up at Fluttershy to free her and restore her to her old self, but no matter how hard Twilight tried to aim the arrows upward, they always flew parallel to the ground. Twilight thought for a moment that her inability to fire arrows at an angle was probably another side effect of the Spell of Unity, and she briefly wished that there were time for her to hear about all the side effects if the spell, but she had to focus on the battle at hoof: Fluttershy sent the birds dive-bombing at Twilight, one by one. They tried to scratch at her ears and eyes, but Twilight was too quick, and she was able to dodge them and even shot a few of the birds with arrows. That bought her respite from the birds for a few seconds.

She took that moment for the opportunity it was, and shouted up to Fluttershy, "I know you're in there somewhere, Fluttershy! You're my _friend_! This _isn't you_! You're kind and gentle and...and you like cute animals! You wouldn't attack anypony; it just isn't _in_ you! Come down from there! I have the magic to make you better!"

Fluttershy didn't answer. She snorted, a thing Twilight _never_ thought she'd see her do. She'd seen Rainbow Dash snort at her as she closed in to cure her of DisQord's spell, and that was a disturbing sight-she only smiled through it because she knew she was about to cure her; it wasn't clear whether she'd be able to cure Fluttershy or not. And that uncertainty was _terrifying_; Twilight desperately wanted her friend back, and the thought that she might not be able to save her made Twilight feel sick to her stomach on top of being hungry-she again pushed the thought aside, determined to redouble her efforts and find a way to cure her friend, no matter what.

Fluttershy pointed at Twilight with her hoof, and now her chickens and her rabbit Angel rushed at Twilight, teeth bared and claws ready. Twilight still knew what to do, though: she fired arrows at a few of the chickens, and they began to scurry around aimlessly with corrupted creatures hot on their tail, distracting the whole swarm.

Fluttershy herself now rushed at Twilight. Twilight fired an arrow at her, and the corruption began to dissipate-but it took more than one arrow to get the job done, and Fluttershy took off again before Twilight could fire another! More birds swarmed around Fluttershy as she began the pattern of attack again. Twilight thought to herself that now, she'd never be able to get Fluttershy to come back down to striking distance-she'd learned her lesson from that one arrow Twilight had managed to land! But Twilight kept fighting with the same tactics, shooting a few birds when they flew low enough, and then, when Fluttershy called the chickens and her rabbit again, Twilight routed those the same way-Twilight's only thought was to keep herself alive and uncorrupted until she could think of something, _anything_, that would let her use her arrows on Fluttershy herself. She was panting and starting to get exhausted from the battle, but she was determined to finish this and get her dear friend back. But to Twilight's surprise, Fluttershy charged her _again_, even though she should've known it would give Twilight the opportunity she needed to fire another arrow. Twilight didn't let the surprise make her hesitate, though: she fired another arrow into Fluttershy, and Fluttershy retreated back to the air.

The corruption was still on Fluttershy and still controlled her actions, but Twilight could tell that another arrow would finish the job and free her friend. Twilight knew enough about how to finish the fight that she could spare some mental energy to ask herself just _why _Fluttershy was fighting in such a predictable way. She realized that the hate that filled Fluttershy's mind (a thought that made her cringe inside!) was forcing Fluttershy to _always_ do _something _to attack her. If her animals couldn't do the job for her, she'd have to do it, herself, even if it put her in harm's way. And Fluttershy couldn't think on a higher level or form strategies for _how_ to do the awful things the corruptions was making her want to do, because the dark magic was overwhelming those parts of her mind with blind rage: the same magic that was making Fluttershy hostile was also making her _stupid_. For a moment, this made Twilight feel very glad and relieved, since it meant it would be possible to save her friend. But then it made Twilight horrified, and even horrified that she'd been glad a quarter-second ago, since she realized that the corruption was doing _another_ horrible thing to everyone it touched-worst of all, it was doing it to poor, timid, kind _Fluttershy_! It wasn't bad enough that it made her hateful and relentless; it made her _stupid_, too!

Twilight pushed those thoughts and the internal conflicts they generated aside, and she kept shooting birds and animals until she had opportunity to fire one more arrow at Fluttershy. When she did, Fluttershy landed, her eyes restored to a bewildered, frightened, dazed white and blue.

Celestia broke her silence: "Quickly, Twilight, touch her! Before the corrupted animals do!" Twilight knew better than to hestitate. She rushed at Fluttershy and dove at her, as if to hug her-and then Twilight disappeared! In her place, she found _she_ was now a floating, purple and pink orb-she was a spirit, now, just like the Princess was! But she could still see and hear and speak, and she saw that Fluttershy was looking around, tears in her eyes, whimpering a little. "Fluttershy, _please_-_say something_!" Twilight pleaded.

"T-Twilight?" Fluttershy asked with a wavering voice.

"Please, tell me you're okay, Fluttershy!"

"No, I'm _not_ okay. I just had the most _horrible_ nightmare; it was even worse than the one where I started acting mean to everyone, and you and Applejack had to tie me down and cast a spell on me to free me! And..." Fluttershy began looking around everywhere, everywhere except at the two orbs floating above her. Another terrified, squeaking whimper rose from her throat. "...And I'm scared I'm _still_ dreaming, because I hear your voice, but I don't see you anywhere! If I'm still dreaming, and you're awake and can hear me, then _please _wake me up. This is _so scary_!"

It was _heartbreaking_ to hear that from Fluttershy. Twilight wished with all her heart that everything was just a bad dream that they could wake up from, and then everything would be back to normal. She wanted to see the smiling faces of the populace of Ponyville going about their daily business again. She wanted to see fillies and colts playing in the streets without a care in the world. She wanted to be with her friends again! But all thanks to this corruption, those things _could. not. happen_. The more she thought about what the corruption was doing, the more it disgusted and horrified her.

And there was no easy solution to what was happening; it wasn't clear exactly what had to be done to fix everything, but Twilight guessed that it was going to take a lot of work and a lot of fighting to repair the damage that the corruption was doing. For a moment she wondered if she'd have to fire an arrow of light at _every pony in Ponyville _to get them all back to normal, one-by-one, but she pushed that thought aside-she didn't even want to think about how complicated, difficult, and dangerous a job like that would be.

Twilight stayed silent thinking about these things for a second too long, and Celestia again broke the silence that was obviously terrifying Fluttershy: "Fluttershy, look up!"

She did, and she saw the orbs. She let out a squeak of fear and dove behind the sofa, trembling.

Oh, _no_! As if she needed something else to break her heart: Fluttershy was now afraid _of her_! Twilight sputtered, "Please, don't be afraid of us, Fluttershy! It's me, Twilight, and the Princess! I'm just in...some kind of...spirit-form... The Princess appeared in spirit form to me, too, and somehow merged with me so that she's following me around as a spirit, and...and it's all part of some kind of Spell of Unity. I don't understand it, myself, and there's no time to explain it all."

Fluttershy nervously peeked around the sofa, still trembling. Some of her animals, which were miraculously no longer corrupted, began edging towards her, some of them nuzzling her here and there, encouraging her to come out from behind the sofa.

Celestia spoke up again: "The Spell of Unity allows one of us to be in bodily form at a time-anyone else who is bound by the Spell of Unity will be in spirit form, but we can switch out who is in physical form at any time, and instantly."

Fluttershy looked at Celestia, confused and still terrified. It was clear she didn't understand.

Twilight sighed. "Princess, I'm getting tired, but I think I should be in physical form again-Fluttershy doesn't understand, and there's no time to explain everything. We have to find the others so that we can use the Elements of Harmony-but...I don't know what we're supposed to _do _with the Elements, this time. Can you please explain on the way back to Applejack's farm?"

"I'll explain what I can, Twilight."

"Okay. Now...how do we switch out who's in physical form and who isn't?"

"Just will it, you and Fluttershy."

"Okay...here goes...you ready Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy snapped back behind the couch, and her sudden movement scared the animals back into their homes.

"Fluttershy, _please_ be brave about this! Just want me to appear, and I'll appear!"

"...okay..." she whispered, and in a flash, Twilight was behind the couch, and a pastel pink and yellow orb was in place of the purple and pink orb that Twilight once was.

Twilight found she had caught her breath, again, from switching out; she was feeling a lot less exhausted and was ready for more action. She didn't waste any time wondering _why_ she was no longer tired, and bolted straight for Sweet Apple Acres.

"So, Princess, what do we do with the Elements once we get everypony together?"

"There is a core to this corruption somewhere in Ponyville. If you can use the Elements of Harmony to destroy that core, you will free all the ponies in Ponyville from the corruption-_and_ anything else that's been corrupted, too."

"That's it? ...Wow...for a while, I was worried I'd have to use my arrows on everypony one-at-a-time to free them all! Thank goodness I don't have to do _that_! But...what exactly _are _all the side effects of the Spell of Unity?"

"Even I don't know what _all _of the side effects are; the scroll I read it from was badly damaged, and most of it, except for the spell itself, was already destroyed and rotted away. I know only a few select things about the spell: I know that it allows one of us at a time to remain in physical form. I also know that it allows a powerful magic-user bound to it to fire arrows of light that can cure the corruption, that it allows anyone bound to a pegasus to walk on clouds, that it allows those bound to it to absorb some types of crystals and have their wounds instantly healed, and that it sometimes interacts strangely with the special talents of some ponies. Beyond that, and the fact that nopony under the Spell of Unity can become corrupted, I'm afraid I don't know anything about it for sure. Much about this is shrouded in mystery, and I'm not even sure how much of the ponytales we can trust to be accurate. But for now, they're all we have to go on."

"You mentioned in your letter something about a demon unicorn who rules over the dark afterlife. What's that about?"

"I don't know, myself-his name is Satallion, and I don't know whether he exists as a pony or is merely some kind of legendary symbol of evil. But the ponytale says that he is able to inflict this corruption and forcibly turn other ponies into his thralls. When they are corrupted, they feel the pure hatred that living ponies normally cannot feel-only the wicked dead are able to feel it without the direct influence of his magic."

Twilight shuddered. "What do we do if we have to fight him? He sounds like he's _dangerously_ powerful!"

"There's no way of knowing how your power or mine measure up to his; we can only use the Elements of Harmony on him and hope for the best."

Twilight didn't like the sound of all this-there were so many unknowns; they weren't sure which parts of the ponytale were true, or whether they'd be able to do anything even if they were _all _true. But, as she found herself doing a lot, she pushed the scary thoughts out of her mind and pressed on for Sweet Apple Acres, hoping that Fluttershy would somehow be able to help her get past those animals.

Twilight's thoughts began to dwell on Fluttershy-the poor mare was terrified, and clearly didn't understand what was going on. On top of that, she'd just been freed from mind-altering magic: there was no telling how scrambled Fluttershy's thoughts and emotions were on account of that magic. The thought of her most vulnerable and timid friend suffering like that, and Twilight herself not knowing what to do about it, suddenly made Twilight want to cry. But she was already at Sweet Apple Acres, so she again pushed these thoughts out of her head and skidded to a halt in front of the ditch that surrounded the farm. The small animals in the ditch immediately began hissing and barking up at her, eyes flaming.

Fluttershy screamed, "Oh!" at the sight of the corrupted animals, filled with pity and horror.

Twilight gulped-now was the time when she had to ask for help from her confused, timid, terrified friend. And she _couldn't_ let Twilight down, either, because if she did, she'd never be able to join up with Applejack, the Elements would be incomplete, and-and Twilight tried to stop thinking about it. She just thought to herself, _please be with me enough to help me, Fluttershy!_ Twilight tried to piece together a sentence explaining what she needed from her friend: "I...I was hoping you'd be able to find a way around them, Fluttershy-everywhere I tried to go, there was always something in the way, until I got to your house."

Fluttershy's voice came back right away: "I...I don't know what to do, Twilight; I've never _seen_ animals act like this, before!"

_She doesn't know what to do...__**no**__!_ Twilight struggled to think of a creative solution, and she sputtered the most obvious thing she could think of. "Well, if you can't calm them down, maybe you could at least _fly_ over the ditch?"

"But I can't just leave these poor animals like this!" Fluttershy moaned, switching out into physical form again. The sight of animals in distress was apparently enough to banish the fear and uncertainty that had kept her silent since they left her house. Twilight was relieved that Fluttershy had forgotten her own suffering, so she could at least check one concern off her list. Fluttershy knelt down in front of the ditch, and the moment she got close to the animals, they immediately calmed down, and the corruption left them.

Twilight was startled as she saw birds that would've normally dive-bombed them turning back to normal and perching contentedly on Fluttershy's shoulders and hooves. "What...?" Her mind struggled to find an explanation. "...Well, the Princess _did_ say that the Spell of Unity interacted strangely with ponies' special talents. Maybe this is the side effect when you're around; the animals get uncorrupted just by you _being around them_, since you're just so good with animals?"

Just then, a thundering stampede of ponies rumbled towards them, each of them with a look of determined hate on their faces. Fluttershy let out a frightened shriek, and the birds that had been perched on her flew toward the stampeding herd, each bird veering off in another direction as they got closer-and the herd dispersed in all directions, each following an uncorrupted bird, baited away from Fluttershy and the precious Spell of Unity.

Fluttershy stood there, not sure what had just happened and a little traumatized from having seen faces with those hideous, evil expressions. Twilight explained, "That's what happens when someone or something uncorrupted gets near a corrupted pony-or really anything else that's corrupted: the corrupted ponies...or animals, or whatever, chase after anything or anypony that's uncorrupted. It distracts them; it's the way I've managed to stay alive." There was another pause as Fluttershy tried to absorb the information and deal with the terror at hand. Twilight's heart sank; just when her friend was beginning to forget her fear, it all came back to haunt her-confound this corruption; it just _wouldn't give her a break_! Twilight thought again of how to cure it, and shouted, "Come on, Fluttershy, we've got to get to Applejack and cure her-or maybe, if we're lucky, the ditch kept her safe, and she's not even corrupted!"

Fluttershy cautiously began flying towards the barn to see if Applejack was there. Corrupted birds flew at her, but when they got close, their corruption faded, and they simply began circling her or flying in formation around her, as if they knew they might need to protect her. She piped up, looking at Twilight and Celestia, "It's much too quiet, here..."

Since Fluttershy was too shy to shout, Twilight began calling out, "Applejack! It's us, Twilight and Fluttershy! Can you hear us? We need your help!"

RIght on cue, Applejack leapt out of the barn, but their hopes that she had escaped the corruption were in vain: her eyes, like every other corrupted pony's, were black and burning red.

Fluttershy let out a squeak of fear and began to fly away.

It burned Twilight's heart to keep her friend in the place that scared her, but she shouted, "Fluttershy, NO! Don't fly away! We need to cure Applejack; I've got magic that can cure her! Land! _Land_!"

Fluttershy obediently landed some distance away, but Applejack was already charging. Twilight popped out into material form, scattering the birds that had been circling Fluttershy. Twilight ignored them and fired some arrows at Applejack. One hit, but as soon as Applejack (or perhaps it was the corruption inside her) realized what was going on, she turned around and ran back toward the barn, hopping left and right and dodging randomly to make it impossible to hit her with another arrow. She dove behind a bale of hay, and began launching apples at Twlight with her strong kicks.

Twilight did her best to dodge, but one smacked her on the shoulder-it hurt quite a bit, making Twilight scream and wonder if her bones were bruised. But Twilight fought back the pain, kept dodging, and tried to think of a plan-then she saw the birds in the trees. "Fluttershy, try getting some birds to fly at Applejack-see if that distracts her enough for me to cure her!" Fluttershy popped into material form and flew up to the trees, collecting a handful of birds. Then she sent them flying at Applejack, and Applejack immediately forgot about firing apples and began swatting at the birds with her hooves, jumping onto the hay bale to swat them better. As soon as Applejack was distracted, Twilight popped back out and fired more arrows into her. Applejack ducked back behind the hay and began launching apples again.

"Get some more birds, Fluttershy. Trust me, it'll still work; corrupted ponies don't learn from their mistakes in battle!" Twilight shouted. Fluttershy popped back out and sent more birds to distract Applejack, and they repeated the pattern a few more times. Soon, Applejack was cured, and Twilight tried to rush at her to make her join the Spell of Unity-but her shoulder hurt too much from the impact for her to run. "Ow...Fluttershy, fly up and touch Applejack!"

Fluttershy popped back out and flew up to Applejack, hesitating.

Applejack, for her part, was confused and a little ashamed. She hesitantly asked, "Fluttershy? What's goin' on, here? What're those weird balloons followin' you around?"

"Just trust us," Twilight said. "Touch her already, Fluttershy, before anything else happens!"

"Twilight? What the hay?" Applejack sputtered.

Fluttershy timidly extended her hoof and touched Applejack on the nose, and then disappeared into spirit form, herself. Applejack was left wiggling her nose and apparently alone, apart from the "weird balloons" floating around her head. She started at Fluttershy's spirit, an orb with her mane and coat colors, in disbelief and confusion.

"It's us, Applejack-Twilight and Fluttershy. And the Princess. Something terrible is happening in Ponyville, and...and...well, we can explain on the way. Just start running towards town."

Applejack did as she was told and began running towards town, grabbing a rope that had been slung on a nearby fence as she passed it. She ignored the flocks of animals that were beginning to chase her, while Twilight explained what she knew of the Spell of Unity and the corruption as they ran. Applejack only stopped when she got to the ditch.

"Fluttershy, switch out and fly us over this," Twilight said. "In fact, with your animal abilities and wings, you can probably get us to Rarity's boutique the safest."

Fluttershy did as she was told, and not a moment too soon-the animals from the farm were upon them! They instantly calmed down and clustered around her as she flew over the ditch, following her as best they could. Many couldn't climb up over the far side of the ditch, but Fluttershy trotted towards town with a large number of animals in tow.

It didn't take long at all for the corrupted ponies to start charging her. She was visibly distrubed by the sight of them charging her, and closed her eyes and ducked her head with a terrified squeak. But her animals scurried at them, and every last one of the corrupted ponies was thoroughly distracted-Fluttershy had a clear path to the boutique.

But she just stood there, eyes closed, trembling. Twilight was getting tired of feeling sorry for Fluttershy; reasons just kept coming up for her to be terrified. But Twilight again focused her mind on getting her friends together and dispelling the corruption. She sputtered, "Fluttershy, quick! _Run_! Run to Rarity's boutique! The animals you control will keep you safe, trust us! The fate of Equestria hangs in the balance! I've seen you be brave before; _please _be brave again!"

Fluttershy picked her head up and gulped audibly, nervously glancing around. Already a few more birds were circling her, ready to protect her. She cautiously started trotting towards Rarity's boutique.

"Better move it, Sugarcube!" Applejack shouted. "There's no tellin' what'll happen if we drag our hooves now!"

Fluttershy bolted toward the boutique, and more corrupted ponies slowly began to chase after her. But a lot of squirrels and birds and rabbits were also following Fluttershy by the time she got to the boutique's entrance. She hopped on top of the boulder to try to get away from the crowd, and with a squeak, sent the animals following her scattering in all directions-taking the crowd with them.

"Quick, Applejack!" Twilight shouted. "While they're distracted, get Tom out of the way!" Applejack popped out and shoved at the boulder with all her might. It slowly rolled out of the way, and Applejack dived into the boutique and slammed the door behind her. No one was in sight.

"You reckon Rarity put that boulder there to keep herself safe from the corruption?" Applejack asked, panting.

"I hope so, and I hope it worked," Twilight answered, "But that's the kind of luck I haven't been getting, today."

As if that were her cue, Rarity stepped out from around a corner with her cat Opalescence-and both of them were corrupted!

Applejack gulped. "I see what you mean, Twilight!"

Unlike Twilight, Rarity had full use of her horn magic, and she used it to levitate the rolled-up bolts of fabric in her store to make platforms that hovered just out of reach of Twilight's arrows. Rarity stood above them on these platforms, glaring down at them harshly.

Applejack tried to calm her down. "Now, Rarity, don't go lookin' at us like that. I know we don't see eye-to-eye on everything, but-"

"Talking doesn't work!" Twilight insisted. "I need to use my magic!"

Rarity began using her horn magic to pick up sharp and heavy objects from around her boutique and hurl them down at Applejack. Applejack dodged as best she could. "What do we do, Twi?!" she shouted.

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" Twilight answered, trying to decide if there was a pattern to the attack. Rarity was hurling things as fast as she could-an iron, a dozen needles held together with a ball of thread, a pincushion was the sharp parts out, a scissors, a ponniequin-but she was hurling them one at a time, and she was beginning to run out of objects to throw.

Then, it dawned on Twilight: Fluttershy charged her when she ran out of animals to send at her. Maybe when Rarity ran out of things to throw, she'd charge them, too, and that would give Twilight her chance! "Keep dodging and get ready to switch out with me!" Twilight shouted to Applejack.

Twilight waited with bated breath as Rarity hurled the last object down at Applejack to see what she'd do. ...But she didn't charge them! Instead, she sent Opalescence to attack Applejack. Opal clawed at Applejack's face, barely missing. Unlike the hurled objects, Opal was able to chase them.

"Switch out with Fluttershy and let her cure Opal!" Twilight shouted. Fluttershy popped out, and, just by being close to her, Opal was cured.

Twilight tried to think what to do next; Rarity wasn't charging them-she was just glaring at them and snorting, trying to pick up a very heavy ponnequin to throw at them, but unable to move it-Rarity was distracted enough to give Twilight a moment to think. If only there were a way to yank the platforms down so Rarity would be low enough to hit with an arrow...! Twilight's mind raced; what did they have to work with? ...Applejack brought a rope, and she could easily lasso some of the bolts of cloth and yank them to the ground. But Rarity could fight against the pull of the rope with her magic-was there a way around that? ...Twilight remembered that, when a unicorn is distracted, it's hard for her to use her magic. But the only thing that distracts a corrupted pony was an uncorrupted animal...like Opal! _That was it!_

"Use Opal to distract Rarity, Fluttershy!" Twilight shouted, overjoyed that she had finally puzzled out a real solution, but still in suspense about whether it would work. Fluttershy gave Opal a boost, and she charged at Rarity. Rarity grabbed Opal between her hooves and let the corruption seep back into her cat, and Twilight took that for the opportunity it was. "Quick, Applejack! Lasso her platform and get her on the ground!" Applejack popped out and did as she was told with alarming speed. Twilight popped out and fired as many arrows as she could at Rarity-which turned out to be only one: re-corrupting Opal had taken less time than Twilight had hoped, and Rarity again was able to focus and use her magic. The platforms snapped back to their places with Rarity and Opal still on them, and Rarity's magic again drew the heavy and sharp objects back into the air, ready to be tossed.

Twilight began dodging them as they flew at her. "Just rinse and repeat, girls!" Twilight shouted.

"I remember you said corrupted ponies don't learn from their mistakes, back when you were fighting-" Applejack hesitated to finish the sentence.

Twilight knew she was feeling guilty about fighting them, so she shouted, "Don't feel bad about fighting us, Applejack! It wasn't your fault!" Twilight let her feelings and the conversation distract her just a little too much, and the iron Rarity was hurling at her clobbered her on the shoulder-the exact same shoulder Applejack had hit with an apple in the last battle, no less! Twilight screamed in pain and collapsed.

Applejack popped out again to take her place. "Leave the heavy fightin' to me, Twi! I'm a tough ol' girl; I can take it!" A ponniequin slammed into her head, and she shook the blow off. "See?"

Rarity was out of ammunition, and again, she sent Opal to attack Applejack. Fluttershy knew what to do, and without a word, she picked Opal up and put her back on Rarity's platform. When that distracted Rarity, it gave Applejack the opening she needed to bring Rarity to the ground, and that gave Twilight the opening she needed to fire an arrow at Rarity. Twilight popped out, fought back the pain, propped herself up, and fired another arrow into her friend.

They repeated the cycle another two times, and finally, Rarity was cured. She looked terribly guilty, and almost immediately began to shed tears. "I...I can't believe I was _attacking _my _own dearest friends!_" she sobbed.

"Don't feel bad about it, Rarity!" Twilight insisted. "We're just glad that we're all okay, right now." Twilight began to walk toward Rarity, but her shoulder reminded her that she _wasn't_ okay the second she put her hoof on the ground. She screamed in pain.

Rarity began blubbering again. "Look what I've done!" her voice got harder and harder to understand as she began blubbering. "I don't deserve to have such good frie-he-hends!"

Twilight tried to concentrate, but there was just too much pain for her to think clearly. Rarity needed to be quiet so they could explain the situation to her, how she needs to be-wait, what did they need to do with her? _OW_! Twilight couldn't think to save her life; it felt like her brain was completely cramping up; she couldn't even remember what was going on!

Suddenly, Rarity went quiet. Twilight looked at her, and saw that Opal had walked up under her owner and was using her paws to clamp Rarity's mouth shut. Thank goodness that cat knew how to handle her!

Applejack and Fluttershy began talking while Twilight tried to regain her concentration. They quickly explained to Rarity what the Spell of Unity was, and what the corruption was doing to everyone, and how they needed to assemble everyone to use the Elements of Harmony.

"This isn't good at all," Rarity reflected. "So...I guess the first thing to do is to find Pinkie and Rainbow Dash? Where would they be?"

"Pinkie would be at Sugarcube Corner fer sure," Applejack thought aloud. "No tellin' where Rainbow Dash is; I sure hope she's fast enough to not be corrupted, so she can find _us_."

Twilight's mind raced again; she was in no condition to fight-and there's no telling what would happen if she were seriously injured or even _died_ while under the influence of the Spell of Unity. Whatever happened, it _wouldn't _be good, and she wasn't going to get far in fixing the situation, as injured as she was. If only there were a way to heal wounds quickly with magic-wait, the Princess said that the Spell of Unity could absorb crystals to heal wounds! And Rarity had a lot of gems in her boutique: _maybe_ she could use those to heal herself!

"Let's just do what we know is right for now and head for Sugarcube Corner," Twilight said, glad she could finally concentrate enough to think up another solution. "But...before we go, Rarity, can I have a few of your gems?"

Rarity was a bit reluctant. "What do you need them for? It's not Spike, is it?"

"No-no; the Spell of Unity lets us absorb crystals and get healed when we touch them and absorb them, and I got pretty banged up in the fight with Applejack and..." Twilight was reluctant to say anything that sounded even a little accusatory; she needed her friends more than ever before. And Rarity was feeling even worse about fighting them than Applejack and Fluttershy had felt. But before she could stop herself, the words came out: "...and with you..."

Rarity didn't seem too shaken up; she just said, "Then of course! Take as many as you need! I'm just glad there's a way you can heal quickly." Thankful she had one less concern for the moment, Twilight limped toward Rarity's gem chest. She tried to reach in with her good hoof, but she couldn't put weight on the bad one. She yelped in pain.

"Oh, Dearie, let me get that for you!" Rarity insisted. She pulled an orange, heart-shaped gem out of the chest and touched Twilight's shoulder with it. Immediately, the gem disappeared, and the pain was gone.

"Wow," Twilight said, moving her shoulder to make sure she was okay. "Rarity, we might need you to find more gems for us if we start to get injured out there." Twilight paused and sadly reflected, "This is probably going to be our most dangerous adventure yet..."

"You can count on me!" Rarity slung a saddle bag over her shoulder and filled it with gems from her chest, trying to be prepared for whatever was coming in the adventure.

Twilight smiled. Between the two times she'd managed to reason out a solution since she got into the boutique and the fact that the pain was gone immediately, she was starting to feel some hope that things would turn out all right in the end, after all. "Thanks, Rarity! Now, let's get you joined to the Spell of Unity!" Twilight touched Rarity's shoulder with her hoof, and Twilight disappeared as Rarity joined the spell.

Just as Rarity was about to move to the door, Celestia again broke her silence: "Your special talent involves gems, Rarity?"

"Y-yes it does, your Majesty."

"Then there is a chance you have a special power that the scroll spoke of. The particular part of the scroll that mentioned this was damaged, but I could make out two words: 'crystal prison'."

"I'm not sure I like the sound of that..."

"Still, if we can, we should try to find out what that phrase meant. It could be helpful if-"

At that moment, the door to Rarity's boutique burst open, and there was a gray, snorting, cross-eyed pegasus at the door: Derpy. Her crossed eyes, which were normally comical to look at, were now even more horrifying than properly aligned ponies' eyes were, thanks to what the corruption had done to them. Rarity let out a startled whimper: Derpy was a walking disaster at the best of times, but now-what would she be like?

"Hurl a gem at her! See what happens!" Celestia commanded. Rarity obeyed, and struck the charging mare in the chest with a small sapphire.

Something that amazed Rarity happened: the sapphire instantly grew around Derpy and trapped her body in blue crystal. This was, in effect, a "crystal prison", just as the Princess had said.

Derpy wasn't completely entombed in crystal, however: her chest, her face, and her tail and hind legs were open to the air. She could still breathe, and was snorting at them and wriggling to try to free herself-to no avail.

Rarity found the sight of Derpy snorting at her and struggling against her own magic unsettling. However accident-prone Derpy was, it could always be said of her that she meant well-except for today. It felt like Derpy didn't deserve to be trapped like this, and yet, the way she was looking at Rarity was disturbing. And then there was the question of how long Derpy would be stuck in the Carousel Boutique. Then it occurred to Rarity that Derpy's rear end was clear of the crystal...

"Uh, Princess, how long is this Crystal Prison supposed to last?"

"I don't know. That part of the scroll was damaged. It could be for _hours_."

Rarity's face took on a horrified expression, and she rushed out of the room. "I've got to find the commode _right now_!"

"We don't have time for this, Rarity!" Applejack insisted.

"This will save far more time than it costs, trust me!" Rarity found the commode in another room and carried it to Derpy, setting it down just behind her. "There."

"...Just _how _did that save us more time than it cost?"

"Do you know how much time and effort it would take to remove the stains from the carpet in here?! I've saved hours of work-_just_ by taking thirty seconds to fetch the commode!"

If Applejack still had a hoof and a face, she'd have facehoofed. With a groan, she shouted, "You may have saved your carpets, but you ain't saved _Equestria_! Get a move on to Sugarcube Corner, already!"

"All right, I'm going!" Rarity shouted back, irritated that Applejack didn't care about what could've happened if she hadn't put the commode where she did. For a moment, she thought to ask Applejack how much she would like manure on _her _rugs, but she thought better of it. After all, the last thing they needed right then was more arguing, and besides: Applejack was so uncouth that the answer might not be what Rarity would've expected.

Just as Rarity was stepping out the door, she heard a relieved sigh from Derpy, and a stench wafted out of the boutique. "See what I mean?!" Rarity shouted.

"Aw, fer Pete's sake! Just get a move on!" Applejack moaned.

"I'll take point," Twilight groaned, hoping that both of them being in spirit form would end the argument.

As she sprinted toward Sugarcube Corner, her stomach gurgled louder than before, giving her a painful reminder that it was still early morning (or would've been if Celestia had had a chance to raise the sun), and she'd _still _not had any breakfast, yet. As if she needed something else to stress her out! It had been straight out of bed and into the adventure for her. No hay, no toast, no eggs, just get up and run and fight-and _think _and _worry_. Of course she wouldn't say "no" to saving Equestria just so she wouldn't miss breakfast, but she secretly hoped that she'd have time to grab at least a cupcake or two before she left Sugarcube Corner. She'd need her energy for this adventure, if nothing else.

Again, she had to fight her way past crowds of corrupted ponies, but by now, she'd gotten the hang of it-she just had to stay aware and watch her back. Beyond that, the same strategies as before applied: shoot the stragglers, and they'll distract the whole crowd.

By the time they got to Sugarcube Corner, there were fewer corrupted ponies than she had expected. "Okay," Twilight began, "Pinkie's locked herself in her room, and even locked the window. She threw the key to the window into this pile of junk, and because of the way the Spell of Unity works, I can't use my magic to search through the pile. Can you find the key, Rarity?"

Rarity popped out, and her horn wasn't glowing for two seconds before the key levitated up out of the pile. "You mean this key?"

"Yes! That's the one! Fluttershy, can you fly us up to the window of Pinkie's room? If she's not been corrupted, then she's probably still up there."

Fluttershy popped out and cautiously flew up to the window, the key between her hooves. "But...what if she _is_ corrupted?"

Twilight's heart sank at that thought, and she tried to drown out the horrific thought of seeing bubbly, fun-loving Pinkie Pie's personality overwritten by the dark magic by focusing on strategy: "Then we might be able to get the jump on her if we come in through the window."

"Ooo," Fluttershy moaned, "This doesn't feel right, sneaking in the window like this..."

"There are a lot of things that aren't right about this, Darling," Rarity lamented, "But we have to just keep doing whatever we can think of to save Equestria. And if barging in or sneaking through the window helps save Equestria, then like it or not, that's what we have to do."

It was comforting to hear such words of plain, simple wisdom from her friends. Everything about the corruption had felt horrible and complicated to Twilight, and it got worse the more she thought about it. But hearing her friends say what she had been half-thinking all along felt soothing-as if her friends' words were massaging the tension out of her cramped, knotted thoughts. Twilight hoped for more of this easing of her mind, and wished she could put the stress of the morning into words and ask for more help from her friends in dealing with it. But then, it dawned on her that they might be walking into a trap, and she had to keep her wits about her. Twilight was reluctant to push such warm thoughts out of her mind to focus on the task at hoof, but she did so, knowing that too much was at stake to dwell on anything-even something as wonderful as friendship.

Fluttershy peeked in the window and saw no one in Pinkie's room. Not even Gummy. She opened the window slowly, and it made a soft creak-Fluttershy gasped softly in fear that she'd been heard, but there was no reaction-still no one in the room, not a sound from the rest of the house. She kept opening the window and flew inside. She looked around nervously, trembling a little, expecting danger to leap out at her at any moment. The tension in the air could've been cut with a knife.

Twilight broke the silence and whispered, "Maybe-"

Fluttershy panicked and rolled over on her back, frozen, and a sound that reminded Twilight of a goat's bleat drifted up out of her throat.

Twilight finished the thought, trying to keep her emotions in check by focusing on the task at hoof: "Maybe I'd better do this; if we find any corrupted ponies, only I can cure them."

Fluttershy was all too glad to let Twilight switch out with her. Twilight looked around the room and spotted a bit of trembling, curly, pink tail-hair sticking out from under Pinkie's bed. "Pinkie, is that you? Are you..." Twilight hesitated; Pinkie probably wouldn't understand "corrupted" if Twilight used the word.

Pinkie's tail zipped under the bed and the whole bed started to shake. "No! No, it's not me! And I'm not-whatever it is you were gonna say!" Pinkie answered, her voice quivering with fear.

"Pinkie, it's all right, it's me, Twilight! I'm not corrupted! You don't have to be scared of us! The Princess is here, too, and she has a plan to stop the dark magic that's making everypony hostile! ...I'm just glad that, for once, I found a friend who _isn't_ corrupted. I had to fight to cure Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity to make it this far!" Twilight began to feel a little bit better again as she realized that luck had finally favored her: she would have a friend back easily, with no fighting or injury required! Maybe things would get better, after all...!

Pinkie peeked out from under the bed. Her eyes were still their natural, filly-ish blue, but full of worry and terror and uncertainty. She saw Twilight with four orbs floating around her. Noticing that Pinkie's eyes were fixed on the orbs, Twilight motioned to them and explained, "Believe it or not, these are Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and the Princess in spirit form-only one of us can be in physical form at a time, but the spell that keeps things that way protects us from the corruption."

Pinkie tried to understand, "So...you can't turn into...zombies?"

"Exactly! Just touch my hoof, and it'll protect you, too!" Twilight extended her hoof for Pinkie to touch.

Pinkie eagerly touched Twilight's hoof-only to find Twilight disappeared! Pinkie screamed and hid under the bed again, causing the whole frame to shake. Twilight's heart sank. Pinkie squealed, "You didn't say it'd make you _disappear_, Twilight!"

Twilight tried to insist to herself that things could still get better; she just needed to explain... "I haven't disappeared, you're just part of the Spell of Unity, now!" Twilight insisted. "I'm in spirit form, just like Applejack and Rarity and Fluttershy! Don't worry about me, I'm fine, and-and so are you!"

Pinkie opened her eyes and looked at the orbs keeping her company under the bed. "Don't worry, Sugarcube," Applejack assured her, "We're all right here, and we're just fine. Just come on out and help us find Rainbow Dash so we can use the Elements of Harmony again to fix this mess."

Pinkie zipped out from under the bed, and the fear was instantly gone from her-she stood at attention and saluted with a cheery, "Okie-dokie-lokie!" She bounded up to her door and unlocked it, but her sudden happiness and eagerness was instantly shattered as a loud pounding came up to the door. Pinkie backed up to her bed, shivering, and was about ready to dive under it again. The door flew open, and a corrupted Mr. and Mrs. Cake burst in, glaring straight at Pinkie Pie with that same dark, horrifying, hateful look that Twilight had seen all too often that morning. Pinkie screamed and pulled a cannon seemingly out from nowhere. "Stay back! Stay back!" she screamed.

"Pinkie, that's your party cannon!" Twilight shouted. "It's not going to-"

Twilight didn't have time to finish that sentence before Pinkie fired the cannon at Mr. and Mrs. Cake. What looked for a moment like streamers flew out at them, but the streamers seemed to stick to the middle-aged ponies' fur and keep them from moving.

"...What did you just do, Pinkie?"

"Oops!" Pinkie giggled. "Looks like I put fly strips in my party cannon instead of streamers-_again_!"

"Worst birthday party ever," Rarity mumbled under her breath.

Pinkie's ears flopped down in sorrow. "I said I was sorry!" Pinkie whimpered.

The Cakes had un-stuck themselves by now, and they snorted at Pinkie. Pinkie gulped loudly. Twilight expected them to attack, but instead, they just glared at Pinkie and spoke harshly to her, their voices twisted by the dark magic into horrible roars, and there were hints of another, darker voice being blended with theirs: "Pinkie! You are _always _eating our wares and wrecking our profits! We shouldn't even be paying you a salary; you eat more than you're worth! You shirk responsibility and play like a little filly and _never_ act your age! It's time you learned your lesson and paid for the things you've done: YOU! ARE! _FIRED_!"

Pinkie's face went white, and she disappeared from her physical form. Twilight popped out and wished she could spare more time to think about why Mr. and Mrs. Cake were _saying things _instead of fighting them directly, or to sympathize with how horrible poor Pinkie must've felt at that moment-she was a _very _sensitive soul under all that joy and randomness. But Twilight didn't have the mental bandwidth or time to think about these things: the Cakes charged her. She tried firing some arrows at Mrs. Cake, but the moment she cured her, Mr. Cake touched her and corrupted her again.

Twilight kept dodging their charges and trying to cure them, but the moment she cured one, the other just re-corrupted him or her. It didn't matter which one Twilight tried to cure, it was always the same-the only reason the battle was bearable was because she was fighting unarmed earth ponies; they had no magic or things to kick back at her. But it was certainly a challenging fight.

Finally, Applejack shouted, "Let me in, Twi! I'll separate 'em!" Twilight let Applejack out, and Applejack kicked Mr. Cake solidly-it wasn't a kick to injure, but a kick to push, and it knocked him off his feet. Mrs. Cake slammed into Applejack, but she didn't flinch; she just pushed Mrs. Cake in the other direction. "All yours, Twi!"

Twilight popped out and fired arrows at a charging Mrs. Cake, then turned around and fired again at Mr. Cake, just as he was getting up. They were both uncorrupted, and a bit dazed. She walked up to Mr. Cake and asked, "Are you all right, Mr. Cake?"

"I'm fine," he assured her, dusting himself off. "But what about Pinkie? Where is she? What happened to her?"

Twilight looked down at the pure, pink orb floating near the floor beside her-but something wasn't quite right about it; the orb seemed like it was shrouded in red, almost as if it were somehow...blocked, for lack of a better term. "That's her," Twilight said, "In spirit form. It's a side-effect of the spell that keeps us immune to the dark magic. She can hear everything we're saying...I think..."

Mrs. Cake said to Pinkie, "Pinkie, please-you're not fired. That wasn't _us _talking, it was the dark magic! We like you for who you are; we like the fact that you're so much like a filly-please don't be hurt that we said those things!"

Twilight cut in, "Pinkie, I think you should be in physical form to have this conversation."

Only silence answered her. Celestia added, "As long as Pinkie doesn't _want _to use her physical form, she _can't_, and we need her help in physical form to destroy the core. Please, Pinkie Pie-listen to them. Make up with them. I don't like putting pressure on another pony's heart, but the fate of Equestria depends on this."

Twilight felt like she was in a daze; part of her wanted to help Pinkie and apply her wisdom, knowledge, and lessons about friendship-but her head hurt from worrying and thinking and pushing thoughts aside. She couldn't think what she should say!

Mr. Cake broke the silence first: "Pinkie, you really don't eat away at our profits _that _much!" Twilight raised an eyebrow at that, finally able to think a clear thought, as she distinctly recalled seeing Pinkie eat an impossible amount of dessert the day the Parasprites appeared, when the Cakes were preparing for Celestia's arrival. The clear thought became a coherent train of thought as she also recalled that there were days when she found it inconceivable that Sugarcube Corner could possibly make a profit if Pinkie was allowed anywhere near the place, let alone allowed to _work _there. Twilight also noted that Pinkie didn't seem to believe it, either; she remained completely silent, and her orb hovered solemnly near the floor.

Rarity's orb flew at Twilight and smacked her across the cheek. "Ow!" Twilight looked at Rarity's orb, and while there was no facial expression, she could almost feel Rarity glaring at her for giving Mr. Cake that look of disbelief.

Mrs. Cake's resolve to stick to that polite lie broke: "...Okay, _maybe _there are days where you eat more than your salary would buy, but they're few and far between! But even though there are days like that, we still like having you around, Pinkie!"

Twilight began to think that maybe she didn't need to say anything as the moment grew more and more touching between Pinkie and her employers, and both Cakes knelt down by Pinkie's orb. "Pinkie, every pony in Ponyville knows you, and they know you throw the best parties!" Mr. Cake insisted. "If Sugarcube Corner lost you, nopony would want to have a party here ever again! You're a vital part of this place-it wouldn't be the same without you at all!"

The red slowly faded from Pinkie's orb, and she popped out, sitting dejectedly and staring at the floor. "Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, I'm sorry for being such a bad employee! From now on, I'll pay for everything I ever eat!"

They chuckled, "You'd go broke if you did that, Pinkie! And the change doesn't have to happen all at once. Just-try to control yourself a little. We don't want to lose the fun-loving Pinkie we know and love!"

"Awww...you guys are the best bosses I could ask for!"

They closed in for a hug, but the Princess shouted, "STOP! Don't touch them; there's only enough room in the Spell of Unity for one more pony, and we need that room for Rainbow Dash!"

"It's true," Twilight admitted, saddened that the heartwarming moment had to be shattered. She stifled a thought that this emotional roller-coaster might never stop, and she continued, "You get more ponies into the Spell of Unity by touching them once they're no longer corrupted. ...I'm sorry, Pinkie; I'd want to hug if I were in your place, too. ...I guess there are downsides to the Spell of Unity..."

Pinkie looked wistfully at Celestia's orb and asked, "What happens once the Spell of Unity is full, and then I touch another non-zombie pony?"

"Nothing happens."

Pinkie immediately perked up. "Perfect! Then I'll go find Rainbow Dash and THEN we can have our hug!" She beamed at her bosses. "Don't worry, it won't take long; I'm the BEST at finding Rainbow Dash!"

She was about to trot down the stairs, when Twilight suddenly remembered her hunger and asked, "Uh, before we go, Mr. and Mrs. Cake-do you mind if I have a cupcake or two? It's just that this whole mess started before I could get any breakfast, and I'll need my strength for this-"

"Say no more, Twilight. Help yourself."

"Thanks-I'll be sure to pay you back for it, later-"

"_Don't_ worry about it," Mrs. Cake insisted.

Twilight was about to argue that she could and should pay for the cupcakes; it was only a few bits, after all. But she knew there was no time. She just thanked them and switched out of spirit form, quickly moving down the stairs and picking a few cupcakes out of the display window before sneaking to the door. She swallowed them quickly with no time to enjoy them-no time for _anything_, really.

Twilight reflected that, in some ways, it was a problem that they had to stop for a few minutes so that Pinkie and the Cakes could patch things up so that Pinkie would be psychologically capable of helping them; lost time was a major issue because of how fast the corruption could spread. But being able to stop fighting for few minutes felt very refreshing to Twilight, now that she thought about it. She wished she had more time to think about what was going on, maybe to see some patterns to it all, or even invent a spell or potion that would cure it faster-or at least carry a train of thought to some conclusion that might give her some hope in this dreary crisis. But there was no time to think, and she and her friends had already spent too much time at Sugarcube Corner; they needed to find Rainbow Dash before things got any worse.

Twilight opened the front door, only to find that the town square was covered with corrupted ponies, all staring darkly at her. Pinkie Pie, still in spirit form, spinning around wildly, screamed, "EEEEEE! Where's my bed when I need to hide under it?!"

"_I can handle this_!" Twilight shouted, half to Pinkie and half to herself. She fired a few arrows into the crowd, and they immediately lost interest in her and scattered in all directions, chasing after the uncorrupted, terrified few.

Twilight did her best to smother the thoughts that were resurfacing in her mind about how terrified those few uncorrupted must be, and said, "Okay, Pinkie-come back out and help us find Rainbow Dash. I know you have a sixth sense about these things, and I still don't understand it, but I trust it."

Pinkie popped out, and immediately she pointed to the Town Hall. "She's on the roof! Maybe she's not corrupted!"

"How can you tell?" Rarity asked.

"Trust me on this one," Twilight groaned, "With Pinkie, you _never_ ask how. Just _don't do it_. Fluttershy, you're the only one of us who can fly. Can you get us there?"

Fluttershy gulped-how she could gulp in spirit form, where she had no mouth and no stomach to swallow down into, Twilight didn't know, but there was no time to wonder about it. "Okay," she feebly whispered, and popped out of spirit form. She quickly gathered a flock of birds around her and flew up to the town hall. Only a few pegasi bothered her, and her birds quickly distracted them. But when they got to the roof of the Town Hall, Rainbow Dash was waiting for them. Her eyes were black and red, but instead of the raging hate, there was a _very _mean sneer on her face. It was almost more disturbing than the hate that most of the ponies had, and it certainly made Fluttershy want to cower.

Rainbow chuckled darkly at Fluttershy. "So...come to make me see the error of my ways, huh?" Rainbow seemed to have the same dark presence behind it that Cake's voices had, only rather than aggressive rage, this was cool, calm, tormenting cruelty. "My 'friends' trying to make me see the light, make me a better pony? You're a bunch of naive idiots, just like you were when DisQord set me free to be who I really am! Then you worked your mind-control magic and turned me back into one of _you_..." Rainbow Dash said "you" as if the word stained her tongue, and started pacing back and forth, hamming up her dark, horrifying speech. "You think I wanna be one of you?! Ha! You lie to yourselves _and _each other-you don't really want to help each other; you want to do your own things! Twilight just wants to read, Pinkie just wants to play, Applejack just wants to work, Rarity just wants to roll in gems, Fluttershy just wants to be alone-and instead, you just waste time with each other and pretend to care about each other. What _for_? You're just pretending to be somepony you're not-all of you! This 'corruption', _as __you__ keep calling it_, is really just setting everypony free to be who they really are, inside! You should be _grateful_ we're all taking the time to let you join us in freedom-but even if we didn't want to invite you to join us, it's not like you left us any choice. You're the worst possible slaves to so-called 'society and civility'; it's not bad enough that you _pretend _to care so much about each other; you also try to _force_ the rest of ponykind to pretend, too! With _mind-control magic_! Honestly, how _wrong_ can a bunch of ponies _be_!?"

Some of Twilight's reading about psychology popped into her mind. One of the major theories about a pony's mind, originally put forward by Sigmund Fjord, was that the mind was divided into three parts: the id, which consists of basic desires; the ego, which seeks balance; and the superego, which consists of principles and is basically the conscience. It seemed like Rainbow Dash was saying the id was all there really was to a pony's mind, and that what a pony wants or is tempted to do is who they really are-that was a scary thought, to Twilight. It meant that raw desires-the desire to have your friends do things exactly the way you want, the desire to have the best food or know everything or win a contest-was all there was to the mind, and that everything your conscience taught you, everything you did to be polite, like sharing or waiting in line-it was all some kind of lie, and shouldn't _be _there. But wouldn't a world without politeness and kindness be utter chaos and total war?

_No_-Twilight couldn't stomach a world like that, even if she had to lie to herself and the world to avoid it. She popped out and shouted back, "Something is wrong with _you_, and if there's anything of the real Rainbow Dash left in what's talking to us now, then hold still so I can cure you!"

"They should've sent you back to magical kindergarten!" the corruption chuckled through Rainbow Dash's mouth. Twilight winced inside; this corruption certainly knew exactly which nerves to pluck-even if she wasn't going to let it slow her down, no matter how much she ached inside.

But the corruption didn't slow down, either; it continued, "I _am_ the real Rainbow Dash, you dunce! ...But nothing I say will make you believe that, will it? You pathetic bookworm-dead-stuck in your ways, you just won't see the truth...!" She paused, narrowed her eyes, and hissed darkly, "_I pity you_."

That was enough. Twilight began firing arrows at Rainbow Dash, but she was too quick to hit-in fact, Rainbow spun around in a circle and created some kind of whirlwind that smashed the arrows to pieces before they could touch her. Then, Rainbow Dash charged. It wasn't easy to dodge her swoops and dives, and Twilight just couldn't land an arrow no matter how hard she tried.

She tried to think as she kept dodging this way and that, even taking a few hits to her sides-then she thought about how Fluttershy's birds would distract other ponies, and that their drive to spread the corruption would take over whenever they got close enough to anything that wasn't corrupted. She shouted for Fluttershy to pop out, and she did, though very nervously, knowing that she wasn't nearly as fast or strong as Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy sent a few birds at Rainbow, and as soon as one bird got close enough, Rainbow grabbed it between her hooves and, with a horrifyingly twisted grin, let the corruption spread slowly into the horrified little creature. That only distracted Rainbow for a second, but that was all the opening Twilight needed to fire arrows at her. "STOP IT!" Rainbow shouted in desperation, flying around again. "Stop taking away my _freedom_! You don't realize what you're _doing_, you morons!"

The desperation in Rainbow's voice would have made Twilight hesitate, but Fluttershy popped back out before she had the chance to do so, and kept the fight going. They repeated this pattern, and surprisingly for how intelligently Rainbow Dash was speaking to them, the intelligence wasn't applied to the battle itself-Dash didn't run away when the corruption was nearly gone from her, nor did she change her patterns of diving and charging at them and throwing whirlwinds at them. Nor did she even ignore the birds when Fluttershy sent them at her; the corruption's behavior really didn't make any sense at all to Twilight. As if she didn't have enough on her mind already, between what she had had to do to make it this far, how many things were horrifyingly _wrong_ with the corruption, and the words the corrupted Rainbow Dash had said to her! She again pushed the tidal wave of unwanted thoughts out of her mind, into the steadily-growing pile of thoughts that were being discarded to the benefit of the immediate and the urgent, and she kept fighting.

It wasn't long before Rainbow Dash was freed from the corruption. With her eyes back to their normal purple, Rainbow quickly sputtered, "That _wasn't_ the real me, guys! Twilight, you're the smartest pony I know; _please_ don't believe a word that I said-I mean, that _it _said-"

Twilight kept pushing away the growing doubts in her mind and heart and limped up to her. "Don't think about it," she said flatly, as much to herself as to Rainbow. "We just need to get you into the Spell of Unity so you'll be immune to the corruption, and then we need to find this-core-thing that's holding the corruption together, and destroy it with the Elements of Harmony." Her answer was short-she wanted to get the job done as quickly as possible; she was getting tired fast-not just physically from the beatings she'd been taking in these fights, but emotionally. She didn't know how much longer she could keep pushing these thoughts out of her mind like this. "When I touch you, you'll be joined to the spell, and when ponies are joined together, only one can be in physical form at once, so I'll turn into a spirit orb like the rest of them-I'm just giving you fair warning."

Rainbow Dash knew that Twilight was agitated, so she ignored what Twilight was saying and kept insisting, "Twilight, I mean it! Whatever it was that said those things was just trying to mess with your head; _please_ don't let it get to you! I can't stand that thought that something _I said_ would hurt my-"

"_Rainbow_!" Twilight insisted, not wanting to think about it anymore. She touched her shoulder with her hoof and vanished into spirit form. "_Don't think about it_! We have a job to do, here, and the fate of Equestria hangs in the balance! We need to find that core, _now_! Princess, do you know where we can find the core of all this corruption? You said if we use the Elements of Harmony to destroy the core, we could free all of Ponyville. So...where is it?"

"I'm not sure, myself," Celestia answered. "But Rainbow Dash, the fact that you were speaking intelligently for a time while under the corruption's influence is particularly relevant; most corrupted ponies can't do that. It implies that the core has some intelligence of its own, and that it has noticed us-it's unsettling to think that it might know what we're up to and be prepared, but at the same time, your mind and it were connected for a time, and that might provide us with some clues. Can you think where it might be?"

Rainbow stopped pushing the subject of messing with Twilight's mind and answered her Princess, "I'm not sure what this 'core' thing is you're talking about, but I felt like whatever was making me talk was really close by-like, probably in this building. In fact, I think I remember seeing this dark cloud-crystal-energy thing inside the town hall while I was flying up here..."

"That's it! That's the core!" Celestia declared. "Get into the Town Hall and let's end this nightmare!"

Rainbow Dash didn't waste any time; she actually broke a window rushing into the Town Hall to get to the core. When she burst in, she saw the core again-it was difficult to describe; it reminded her of a large, pulsating, swirling dark cloud, but it was glued to the floor by bizarre-looking crystal structures that also seemed to be pulsating-growing here, shrinking there, breaking off and swirling into the cloud, dissolving, and growing back all in a second. Describing it would've been like trying to describe fire to somepony that had never seen fire. But it gave off a very creepy vibe, as if just being around it without having the Spell of Unity on you could corrupt you. She gulped and stared at the monstrosity for a few seconds. It was not hard to believe that it was the cause of all the misery in Ponyville.

While she was staring at it, Fluttershy asked, "What do we _do _to get rid of this thing?"

Celestia explained, "The Spell of Unity will allow all of us to enter physical form together long enough for you to use the Elements of Harmony to destroy it. But it takes a great deal of energy, it makes the Spell of Unity less stable, and all of us will be able to remain in physical form for only a short while; we shouldn't try it if there are any enemies who could interfere with-"

She didn't get a chance to complete the thought, but it was pretty obvious where she was going with it. Especially because an enemy did, in fact, show up: Trixie. Her eyes were black where they should've been white, but instead of glowing red, they were glowing an otherworldly purple. Twilight wondered if this was a side effect of being so close to the core, but pushed the thought aside as the battle began.

Trixie threw all kinds of magic at them, and was surprisingly good at using their own abilities against them. For instance, when she fired a magic wave at them that surged along the ground, and Rainbow Dash tried to reflect it with a tornado, Trixie just made the tornado swing back at her. Twilight popped out to try to even the odds, but Trixie was too good at reflecting the arrows of light back at Twilight for direct curing to work, try as she might. Rarity shouted above the battle-clamor, "Fluttershy! Try distracting her with some birds! That's these corrupted ponies' only weakness; their lack of attention!"

Fluttershy was very reluctant to pop out. "I'm no good at fighting!" she protested, "I _hate _violence!"

"This isn't violence," Twilight insisted, "It's the only way to cure her and free Ponyville! And we all know you can be brave, Fluttershy. We all believe in you!"

That was enough pressuring. Fluttershy popped out, and began to call birds in through the broken window. They swarmed around her, and she sent them flying at Trixie. Trixie began firing her magic at the birds instead of at Fluttershy, and Twilight took that as the opportunity it was, and fired arrows at her. But there was some kind of shield around Trixie that kept the arrows from touching her. And it wasn't long before the birds were re-corrupted and flew back at Twilight, either.

Fluttershy popped out, and before the birds could injure Twilight, their corruption faded, and they circled Fluttershy again. She sent them back at Trixie to keep her distracted, and tried to think of something that would break through that shield.

Applejack shouted, "Let me at her! If magic won't work, let's see how hooves work!" Applejack popped out and charged at the distracted Trixie, giving her a solid kick to the shoulder. Twilight popped out and shot her with arrows at point-blank range. Trixie unleashed a burst of magic that sent Twilight skidding across the room, and began firing more and more magic at them-different spells from before. It was as if she were learning from her mistakes, this time, the thought of which made Twilight shudder inside: it would be more difficult to cure Trixie than it was to cure any of the other ponies.

"Let me at her; I have an idea!" Rainbow shouted. She popped out and tried to reflect Trixie's magic with another tornado, but Trixie spelled her tornado to fly back at her. But Rainbow was clever, and while Trixie was spelling the tornado, she flew over the tornado and was right above Trixie. "NOW, Applejack!" Rainbow shouted, and Applejack popped out as they were dropping right on top of Trixie. Applejack kicked her again before she could fire off another spell, and Twilight popped out and shot as many arrows as she could at Trixie. It was enough to cure her, but only just barely.

Trixie stared at Twilight for a moment-Twilight was exhausted and injured from the fight, and she couldn't quite think what to say to Trixie. In fact, she was feeling very overwhelmed, and finally getting a chance to catch her breath practically made everything else in her mind shut down. She could hardly think or feel, let alone speak. Trixie didn't say a word; she merely fled. Twilight didn't try to stop her.

After a few seconds, Twilight shook off her exhaustion and grimly coughed, "Let's destroy this core before anything else happens."

Celestia's spirit-orb glowed and filled the whole town hall with blinding light. When the light faded, all five of Twilight's friends were standing beside her. Celestia herself was standing there, too, with a saddle bag over her back. She used her horn magic to open the bag, and the Elements of Harmony were inside. She quickly slipped the necklaces on each pony's neck, and the magic tiara onto Twilight's head. "Quickly, before reinforcements arrive," Celestia commanded.

They wasted no time; the energy of the elements flowed through them, and a wave of rainbow-colored magic flew at the core and made it collapse and vanish. The crystals that glued it to the ground stopped their unnatural movements and clattered to the ground.

Rarity walked up to one of the crystals and looked at it. "These are just ordinary gems! Twilight, what kind of magic would leave _these _behind?"

Twilight was still staring off into space, still overwhelmed, exhausted, and battered, not paying attention to anything that was said.

Celestia broke the silence: "Twilight, you, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash are injured. Touch those gems to heal yourselves, quickly!"

Rainbow Dash and Applejack immediately collected a few heart-shaped gems, and their bruises were gone in an instant. But Twilight didn't move. Rainbow Dash looked at her and asked, "Twilight, what are you waiting for?"

"She must be badly torn-up, the poor Dear," Rarity thought aloud. She used her horn magic to pick up several gems and touched them to Twilight's wounds. The crystals immediately disappeared, and took Twilight's wounds with them. Twilight shook herself a little as she realized she was feeling better, and tried to come to her senses.

"Are you alright, Twilight?" Celestia asked.

Twilight's thoughts were horribly fuzzy; she still felt overwhelmed from the fight, and from having to push thought after thought out of her head all throughout her journey through Ponyville. How could she even put into words what she was feeling? Would her friends and her mentor understand? ...She had to say _something_ in any case. She willed her voice to answer, hoping that she'd be able to explain some of her stress, but all that came out was, "Y-yeah, I'm alright, I'm just...tired..."

"Is it safe for us to take a rest, now, yer Majesty?" Applejack asked. "I mean, if the core's gone, then all of Ponyville is safe, now, right?"

Celestia shook her head. "There are more of these cores, throughout Equestria, and one of them is _dangerously_ close to Ponyville. I can sense its general location; it's in Everfree Forest."

The very name of that forest wiped the smiles off of all the ponies' faces and replaced them with frightened and worried expressions: Everfree Forest wasn't a natural place at all. Even if the clouds and animals and seasons didn't take care of themselves, the woods were full of dangerous beasts, and needed to be avoided at the best of times. With those beasts corrupted, the forest would be an even _more _dangerous place.

There was a pause as they waited for someone to say something in response; Twilight thought to herself that they ought to head straight for the core, wherever it was, destroy it, and then get out of the woods as quickly as possible-she thought this for the briefest instant, but she felt too tired to suggest it. And the corrupted Rainbow Dash's words cropped up again in her mind and haunted her-she really did care about her friends, right?

Applejack broke the silence and said exactly what Twilight had begun to think: "D'we know where to look first? I, fer one, think it best we get in an' outta there as quick as we can."

"A good place to start looking is the ruins of our old castle; even if the core isn't there, the castle should at least give us a clear view of the rest of the forest, so we might be able to figure out where to look next from there."

The Spell of Unity once again kicked in, and they were all drawn back into spirit form, except for Rainbow Dash. Rainbow floated there for a moment, shocked that her friends had disappeared so quickly. She blinked, then after realizing what had happened, she said, "You weren't kidding when you said we could only all be in physical form for a little while..." Silence hung in the air for a moment, but then, without another word, Rainbow Dash bolted out the door for Everfree, not wanting to waste any more time.

Author's Notes:

Those of you who have a higher education (there are many of that type of brony) will take note that I've got a couple of shout-outs to Sigmud Freud and Immanuel Kant, a real-life psychologist and a real-life philosopher, respectively. And Sigmund Freud really did say that the human mind was split up the way Twilight's inner monologue said it was (though I am simplifying), and Immanuel Kant really did say that human beings were never supposed to be used as a means to an end while he was trying to codify ethics. This is what you get when you make a cartoon that's so good, adults are into it, and then you attract the attention of an adult who minored in philosophy.

You can tell that, if Twilight's magic weren't limited by the Spell of Unity to only being able to use those Arrows of Light, she'd be completely overpowered-she can teleport, hold enemies in midair with telekinesis, her magic can be used as a directed energy weapon, she can light fires, she has force fields, and you've seen her do all kinds of other things with it. And, as she herself silently noted, she could've easily moved Rarity's boulder "Tom" with her magic if she were allowed to use her magic any way she wanted. You can tell that I had to de-power her, or else the game just wouldn't _work_.

Regarding the "gameplay" I was trying to lay down, here, you can tell that I was going for something like a plot-coupon or Metroid/Zelda-style approach to the reasons why Twilight had to find her friends in the first level (though I won't keep this approach in future levels/chapters). Twilight needs to find the mane six in order to advance the plot. And yes, that "in order" part of that last sentence could be interpreted two different ways, either as "Twilight needs to _find the mane six in order_" or as "_in order to advance the plot_", and both of these interpretations are completely true. Let's face it: order matters. Although I could imagine the game randomizing the needed order so that there would be replay value (which would require different fight mechanics depending on order), the way I have it set up in this narrative is this: only Fluttershy can get past the ditch to get to Applejack, only Applejack can move the boulder to get to Rarity, only Rarity can find a key to get into Sugarcube Corner to find Pinkie, and only Pinkie can find Rainbow Dash.

You can also see what I was aiming for in terms of the different characters' roles. There's this site called , where there is a community that looks for, discusses, and writes articles on patterns that keep coming up in different forms of fiction (they call these patterns "tropes"), and one of the forms of fiction they discuss is video games. They have titles for different types of video game characters when it comes to different kinds of statistics or roles, like a "Mighty Glacier" is a character who can take a lot of damage without dying and also do a lot of damage, but is slow; or a "Fragile Speedster" is a character who dies easily, but is extremely fast; or a "Glass Cannon" is a character who dies easily, but can do a lot of damage. I actually had these things in mind when I was trying to decide what each character would be able to do. At first, I wanted Applejack to have the most health, the Mighty Glacier; Rainbow Dash to be fastest, the Fragile Speedster; Twilight to be able to shoot, the Glass Cannon (to some extent); Pinkie Pie as the Jack of All Stats: balanced, agile, and having a sort of sixth sense so that she could see enemies coming even if they were off-screen (thus making her Pinkie Sense useful in-game). That was about all that was obvious.

But as I started to get more ideas, I ended up making Fluttershy a Glass Cannon-she fires a spread of projectiles (robins/cardinals/ducks/bats/butterflies/whatever is appropriate for the level) rather than the rapid-fire abilities Twilght's attack has, so her attack is better at dealing with enemies than Twilight's is. But she has extremely low health, and her attack can't actually damage bosses-it's still useful against bosses, but it doesn't do damage per se (not that that can't be changed for a game adaptation).

Then again, Twilight's "arrows of light" don't do damage per se, either-in fact, if I changed Applejack's kick to a kind of a ground-pound that stuns nearby enemies, then NONE of the playable characters' attacks would deal damage per se-which, when you think about it, actually makes this a _perfect_ kiddie game, while still having satisfying gameplay for adults, no less. ...It's kind of creepy how fitting it would be, and it makes me wonder: if I had the investment capital and a commitment from some fellow bronies who were good with artwork, sound, music, animation, level design, and maybe programming (I'm a programmer, myself)...would I _actually _be able to pitch this to Hasbro and get approval to actually make this game for PC/tablets/smart phones/Wii U/whatever, and sell it _legitimately and legally_? ...Well, crazier things have happened...I'd have to add "business major" and lawyer to that list, too, since, let's face it: knowing how to make music/programs/images is only half of what it takes to start and run a business like that. It's kind of far-fetched, anyway, but, like I said, crazier things have happened. (I'm not trying to be arrogant or greedy by thinking of selling the game legitimately-it's more like it's the ultimate achievement of any fan to have their fanwork made canon. And I'd like to add that, even if the Hasbro execs wouldn't go for it, I'd still be thrilled to collaborate with other fans on making this a free-for-download fangame. I just keep talking about getting it approved by Hasbro because I can't quite shake the feeling that it could actually _happen_.)

Anyhow, back to the characters' roles. I'd like to add that, in these sorts of games, the developers generally make whatever your "first pick" would be for a character as balanced as possible: Mario is the most balanced in just about every game he appears in (the Super Smash Bros. series, the Mario Kart series, Super Mario Bros. 2, etc.), the Humans are the most balanced race in Warcraft 3 and Starcraft (in some ways), etc. So actually, Twilight (the first of the characters we meet in the series premiere of Friendship is Magic) would probably serve best as closer to a Jack of All Stats than she would as a Glass Cannon. In a way, Pinkie and Twilight would probably be best if they shared that role, though I have in mind Pinkie having slightly more health, being slightly faster, and jumping quite a bit higher than Twilight. To balance out Pinkie's advantages over Twilight, her attack is comparatively sucky, though nevertheless workable-and probably her attack would be situationally more useful than Twilight's attack, since Twilight can only hit one enemy per arrow, and Pinkie's cannon, despite its longer cooldown, can spread fly strips over a large area of enemies.

Moving on to the less obvious characer roles, Fluttershy and Rarity: you'd normally think that Fluttershy, given her kind, gentle personality, and the fact that we've seen her as an expert veterinarian on the show, would be better as a healer. She herself would probably love a role as a healer, now that I think about it. But I came up with a story-logical reason why Rarity would make a good healer (the gems-for-healing aspect of the Spell of Unity), and a good story-logical reason why Fluttershy would make a good Glass Cannon (her animals distract enemies, and she can fire many of them at a time), so I went with those roles instead. For a little while, I was thinking Fluttershy would simply be immune to small enemies because her "kindness aura" cured their corruption-that was all part of the Metroid/Zelda-style approach I was taking to keeping the plot moving forward: you need Fluttershy's immunity to get past the ditch full of corrupted animals. But then I got the idea of using the small animals as an attack, which sounded a lot more interesting than mere inherent immunity-and which Fluttershy was doing in the boss battle, anyway. As such, the Glass Cannon role seemed to fit, strange as it sounds.

Another thought I felt I should put forward is the corruption itself. I suppose the idea about the corruption came to me as I thought about the way Eurobeat Brony's "vs Psychoshy" music twists around early on, as though Fluttershy suddenly turning around and revealing herself as hostile and crazy would shock and horrify the viewer, and force the viewer to fight her. The Fluttershy we know and love wouldn't fight us, but she might attack if she were under the influence of some dark magic-and that same dark magic spreading over the whole land would make a nice plot, wouldn't it? As you can see, when I came up with the idea to make this fanfic, the ideas kept coming to me and kept building on each other. I guess that's kind of the way I think when it comes to creativity-you'd be astounded how much backstory I've already thought of for Celestia that will come up later in this fic, and how it all kind of built on itself-but I'm getting head of myself.

I'd like to confess that I've fallen a bit short in what the guys at would call "Fridge Logic" (logical plot holes that occur to you after the show's over and you're staring into the fridge looking for a snack): I never really explained what happened to Mr. and Mrs. Cake's twin babies. (This is partly because I began getting ideas for this before Baby Cakes Aired.) Well, I'll say it here: they were corrupted the whole time and out of sight, and it wasn't long after Twilight left before they re-corrupted Mr. and Mrs. Cake. (If they hadn't, a squirrel or bird probably would've, so don't feel too bad about it.) Yes, it's horrible to think that there are _babies _under diabolical magical mind control. But then again, having a horrible antagonist can be helpful to a narrative.

Another thought that occurred to me was that, for a game based on a series that's all about the characters, it would be nice if you could play as any pony you wanted. But having six ponies on the screen at once would be far too confusing and make the screen far too busy. Plus, how would the playable characters be protected from the corruption, themselves? The Spell of Unity, with its strange and mysterious effects, solved both of these problems: it protects the mane six from becoming corrupted, and it only allows one of them to be "out" at a time-though you can switch instantly at any time.

What I had in mind was, at the touch of a button, the player could instantly switch which pony they were playing as-"A" for Applejack, "R" for Rarity, "T" for Twilight, "F" for Fluttersy, "D" for Rainbow Dash, and "E" for Pinkie. (I wanted the keys to be close together to make it easy for the player to switch quickly, which is why I chose the un-obvious "E" for Pinkie). And the way the Spell of Unity works, it actually makes sense story-wise that they could switch out instantly-I really wanted to make sure there was a story-logical reason for everything that you'd find in a game, from the predictable attack patterns of enemies, to items disappearing when touched, to the reason you can switch characters out.

It's almost to the point where the Spell of Unity is the default explanation for everything that the main characters can do; it's what the people would call "Applied Phlebotinum", or perhaps they might even call it "Handwavium". In any case, it does a good job of giving a story-logical reason why the player can switch which pony they're playing as instantly and at any time.

And one of the things that I'd hope would make the game more fun would be if the player can pretty much play as whichever pony is their favorite, _most _of the time. That's why I ended up giving all of the mane six an attack of some kind-a pony with no attack would be pretty much unplayable. At first, I wanted only Twilight to be able to attack, but then I thought of Fluttershy's animal attack, and then I thought of giving Pinkie the party cannon as an attack (and the fly paper joke, of course), and giving Rarity the Crystal Prison attack. This is probably for the best; I think the game will be more enjoyable in the end if the player is allowed to play as whichever pony is their favorite-though the boss battles _will _require players to mix things up and use the mane six's different abilities to beat them.

And the way I'm writing this story, it seems like it's going to be all about boss battles. That's not a bad thing in itself, but I have to wonder what a game like that would really feel like. I can't quite recall a game that was nearly all about boss battles, other than maybe World of Warcraft PvE. Admittedly, the boss mechanics in that game are probably having an impact on how I design the boss battles here.

Now, I know what you've all been thinking after reading the paragraph about switching characters out at the touch of a button: "Why only allow us to play as the mane six? My favorite pony is Big Mack! The letter B is right there; come on! Use it!" or "My favorite is Derpy! How dare you waste a perfectly good D on Rainbow Dash?!" or "My favorite is Trixie! Give her the X button!" or "Look at that nice, shiny letter S between the A and the D! Why isn't Spike playable?" or even "Hey, there's a C there-Celestia, baby!" Well, first of all, this is a fanfic that someone, someday, _might_ turn into a video game, _maybe_. So it's way, way, _way_ too soon to complain that your favorite character isn't playable. Besides, I can easily imagine the Spell of Unity being expandable at Celestia's will to accomodate more characters-that would be a change from what I've written here, but hey: I said in the foreword that I expect, and don't have a problem with, those kinds of changes. I can also easily imagine a branching storyline where you can turn Trixie over to your side with a touch of the Power of Forgiveness (Forgiveness is actually going to be a major theme in this story, though it's too soon for you to see how), or where a little extra exploration and a bonus boss at Sweet Apple Acres gets you Big Mack or Apple Bloom as a playable character. But-well, this is a fanfic, and as such, it's not the best medium for having a branching storyline. I'm sure those of you observant enough to note the the possibilities attached to those nearby letter-buttons will also be intelligent enough to understand all this.

And those of you who are observant will know already, from the fact that Celestia mentioned early on that anyone bound to a pegasus through the Spell of Unity can walk on clouds, that this adventure will at some point take the mane six to Cloudsdale. Actually, that's another of the things that makes this video game concept seem to work so well: most video games have several different settings that each correspond to a different level. Take the four recent 2D Mario games for an example: they always starts in a green, grassy area, then move on to desert, ocean, forest, ice, mountain, and cloud environments, before ending in a volcanic area for the final showdown. They ought to change that lineup a little, but I digress: having a lot of variety in your settings is another classic video game trait, and Equestria as we've seen it in the show can deliver on that kind of variety. At first, I was thinking that Ponyville, Everfree Forest, Cloudsdale, Appaloosa, and Canterlot would be excellent levels, but I'm thinking at this point that the pacing of the story in this fanfic will require me to cut out some of those levels. Literature and video games are two different things, and their pacing needs to be managed differently. That being said, if I were to make this into a video game, I'd probably put those chapters back in, maybe mixing in the Diamond Dog Underground and/or the mountain the dragon was sleeping on in Dragonshy-maybe even Manehattan and/or Froggy Bottom Bog, if I can come up with good ideas for them. (I'd like to add that, at this point, I plan to write five "canon" chapters, and then after the main plot is done, add a couple more "non-canon" chapters that contain concepts for some additional levels as I get ideas for them.)

I hope these author's notes are helpful and thought-provoking, rather than disruptive and spoiler-heavy. To be honest-we have barely started the real adventure at this point, so I don't think I've really spoiled much. The first chapter is enough to introduce the reader or player to the problems at hoof and to how things are going to work for the duration of the story, and that's what the first chapter is supposed to do in any work of fiction. I hope I've whet your appetite for more, and I hope I get to deliver on more soon.

DELETED SCENES FROM CHAPTER 1:

_author's notes: I had originally written that Twilight and co. immediately recognized Satallion's attempts to mess with their heads, and didn't let him succeed. I realized later that, given the other things I want to happen in this narrative, not to mention how devoid of plot the Everfree Forest chapter was going to become, that it would be better if his words got to Twilight, and then her friends talk some sense into her while they're in the woods. (That's hardly a spoiler; pretty much one of the mane six goes nuts every week, and the rest of them need to talk some sense into her. It only makes sense that I'd have the same happen in a fanfic I want to be a potentially meta-realistic plot for a canon MLP adventure game.) Having Twilight go nuts and get better psychologically early-on in the plot will actually set the stage for some other developments I have in mind for later in the story, but the lines here are sufficiently awesome that I decided to keep them here in a deleted scenes segment. It begins just after Rainbow Dash has said her lines about raw desires being all there is to the mind, and Twilight has recalled Sigmund Freud's-sorry, Sigmund Fjord's philosophy of the mind:_

While Twilight puzzled, Applejack answered immediately. "Now, you look here, ya dern piece of black magic, you! I represent the Element of Honesty. Maybe I'm uncouth, but I still share and wait in line, and I'm mighty proud of it, too!"

Rainbow Dash, or whatever it was that was in her that was doing the talking, let out a whinnying, patronizing laugh. "Still pretending you don't want to bowl over everyone in line at Sugarcube Corner and then take the cupcakes without paying? Face it, you wish you didn't have to wait in line, and you like getting free cupcakes! That's the _real you_."

"Maybe that is a real part of me, but it's not everything. I also like seeing smiles on other ponies' faces and knowing that I did the right thing. That's as real a part of me any temptation I've ever had to do wrong; it sure as shootin' ain't no lie. Now, tell me this, ya weird piece 'a' magic: if I'm lying by being who I am, then how come the Element of Honesty works so well?"

Everything suddenly clicked in Twilight's mind; saw exactly what was going on-she realized that the corruption, or perhaps the demon stallion himself, was doing its best to mess with their heads. It did this to Pinkie at Sugarcube Corner minutes ago, and it was doing it again to all of them, now. It knew they'd listen to Rainbow Dash; she was one of their closest friends, and it knew that they all had different desires and sometimes got on each other's nerves.

But Twilight knew their friendship was stronger than that, and she knew every word out of Applejack's mouth was the truth-partly because everything she said added up, and partly because it was _Applejack_. She knew that they weren't going to let the corruption mess with their heads; they'd seen DisQord try to mess with their heads, and it only worked because they had been separated. Now that they were joined in the Spell of Unity, they were literally inseparable. If one of them began to tire, emotionally or physically, another could pop out or speak words of comfort or reason, or whatever was needed. For all its drawbacks, the Spell of Unity was going to be exactly what they needed to get through this crisis.

Twilight didn't waste any time; she popped out and gave a righteous, determined smirk. "Rainbow Dash, we _know _that's not you talking! What's talking is the corruption, and we know it's just trying to mess with our heads! Well, it won't work! And Rainbow Dash-the _real_ Rainbow Dash-I know you can hear me, and I want you to know that you don't have to feel sorry for saying or even believing the things you're saying now; it's the corruption in you believing it and saying it, not _you_! There's _nothing _for us to forgive!"

_...after the battle, and Rainbow Dash is apologizing profusely..._

"It's okay, Rainbow," Twilight assured her happily, trotting up to her and touching her to draw her into the Spell of Unity. She finished the thought from her spirit orb: "We know that it wasn't you, and that the corruption was just trying to mess with our heads and make us question who we really are. And to make you question who you really are. But we know who we are, and being friends with each other really does help us keep track of who we are, and we really do care about-"

Rarity cut in, "Uh, all this philosophy and friendship is really touching, Twilight, but is now really the best time for it?"

Twilight's sphere took on an embarrassed pink glow for a brief moment, and she quickly admitted, "You're right, you're right...


	2. Chapter 2: Lost in the Woods

Chapter 2:

Twilight felt like she was beginning to come back to her senses and regain her powers of speech, but thoughts still swam in her head: was the id all there was to the mind? Was she wrong to use other ponies to distract corrupted ponies? Even if it was wrong, did she have a choice? And if she didn't have a choice _and _it was wrong-then what kind of world did she live in?!

Applejack, bless her heart, mercifully interrupted Twilight's tormenting thoughts: "D'ya s'pose we should see Zecora? Maybe she knows where the core is."

Rainbow Dash hadn't yet made it far into the woods, but she screeched to a halt mid-air. "Why do you think she'd know where the core is?"

"I don't know why or how she'd know, but I do know this: when there ain't an answer anywhere in Ponyville, she's had the answer before. More 'n once, too."

Twilight struggled to keep her overwhelming questions down, and managed to get two words out: "Applejack's right."

Rarity chimed in, "It's certainly worth a try."

Without another word, Rainbow Dash veered off towards Zecora's house. Surprisingly many small creatures leaped out of the shadows at her and chased her. Unsurprisingly, she was far too quick for them to catch her. But as she slowed to a stop in front of Zecora's house, the animals closed in.

Rainbow snorted at the creatures, daring them to try and touch her. The animals didn't slow down, so Rainbow blasted them with a gust of wind from her wings. That pushed them away, but only bought her a few moments before they began closing in, again. Rainbow gulped.

Fluttershy willed herself into physical form, and the moment the animals got near her, they lost their corruption and scurried back into the shadows.

"...What just happened?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Duh! Isn't it obvious?" Pinkie asked back. "When the animals get near Fluttershy, they lose their corruption! It's because of her super-animal-control power!"

"I knew you were good with animals, but not _magic-grade_ good!"

Fluttershy flushed at the compliment as more birds began to circle her. "Well, um...you know..."

Her stammering was brought to an end as the door to Zecora's house slammed open, and a snorting, enraged, corrupted Zecora burst out. It wasn't a surprising sight, but it was still a disturbing one.

Fluttershy scampered away from Zecora to try to get some space between herself and the bewitched mare-she knew another battle was about to happen, but she didn't quite know what to expect. She decided to open up by sending her birds toward Zecora to distract her, but as the birds closed in, Zecora seemed to fire some kind of hypnotic rings out of her eyes. When the birds were hit, they fell to the ground and landed in the bushes. Fluttershy gulped: this would be harder than they thought.

Amazingly, Zecora began to dance, and as she did, musical eighth notes materialized and went flying at them. Fluttershy froze with fear, but Rainbow Dash popped out into material form and began using her speed and agility to dodge each note as it flew at them. Rainbow Dash was too focused on dodging to notice it herself, but as one of the eighth notes flew past, its flag-which looked a bit too much like a blade for comfort-rammed into a tree trunk, cutting its way through the bark.

Twilight took note of it, however, and she thought to herself, _I'd better warn Rainbow Dash about this!_ But before she could say anything, Rarity shouted, "Careful, Rainbow Dash! Those notes are sharp!"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "This isn't the time for puns, Rarity!"

Twilight paused for a moment, confused that Rainbow was talking about puns. What pun? All Rarity had said was that the notes were _sharp_, and she flies off the handle-then it dawned on Twilight that a "sharp" was also a musical term. She actually found Rarity's accidental pun a little bit amusing for a moment and giggled silently to herself; a good laugh was just what she needed right then.

Rarity was not so amused: "Ohhh! I didn't mean _that_, I meant those notes could cut you in half!"

Rainbow continued to dodge the notes. "You could've said it like _that_ instead of _sharp_!"

Twilight's laughter faded: her friends were arguing-at the worst possible time. A good leader stopped unneeded arguments like this and made sure that everyone kept working toward the team's goal-Twilight's head was still swimming with doubt and horror, and with arguments against herself that might or might not be needed. But she knew she couldn't let her friends down. She screamed, "FOCUS!" and that was all Rainbow Dash needed to hear.

Eventually, Zecora (or the corruption in her) realized that the musical notes weren't working, so she switched tactics. She pulled her cauldron from inside her hut and began mixing something up in it. Green smoke began to overflow out of the cauldron and create a wall of fog around her.

Twilight decided not to wait to see what this spell was: she popped out and began firing arrows at Zecora. But the arrows were somehow stopped and dissolved by the fog. Then Zecora made some kind of casting motion, and clouds of smoke flew at them. One of them hit Twilight in the face, and she began choking.

Rainbow Dash switched back out into physical form and blasted the clouds with wind, sending them back in Zecora's face, making her pause and cough. Rainbow Dash smirked at her. "I've sent _thunderclouds_ back the way they came with my tornadoes! Did you really think your little puffs of smoke would slow me down?"

Twilight popped back out and began firing arrows at the choking Zecora. Zecora's corruption began to fade, but it wasn't gone, yet. She fired more rings out of her eyes, and two of them hit Twilight squarely. Twilight was suddenly entranced, and all the doubts and questions she'd had over the last few hours swept over her like a tidal wave once again: was she lying to herself by resisting temptations? Was she evil for using other ponies to keep herself safe? Would the horrors of the corruption keep her on an emotional roller-coaster forever? Something in Twilight wanted to push this all aside and focus on-what was it she had been doing before she thought of all this? She couldn't quite remember, but wasn't it important? She thought she heard someone, someone familiar, shout her name and say something like "snap out of it!" but the voice seemed so distant, almost like a far-off memory or a forgotten dream, that it didn't seem relevant.

The next thing Twilight knew, she was a spirit orb again, and Rainbow Dash was out. She was furiously dodging the flurry of bladed notes that were flying at her. "Twilight! Twilight, can you hear us?!" Rarity asked.

Twilight tried to shake off the doubts that were still clinging to her, but the questions still hung heavily on her mind. But she could at least hear her friends and felt like she was all there again, and she knew once again that the battle at hoof was more important than her questions. So she answered, "Y-yeah, I can hear you. What happened?"

"It's like I told you before," Pinkie shouted, going into her sing-song mode: "She's an evil enchantress, she does evil dances, and if you look deep in her eyes, she will put you in trances, then what will she do? She'll mix up an evil brew-"

"Pinkie, now is _not_ the time! We can _see_ what she's doing!" Applejack insisted.

As varied as Zecora's attacks were, she proved that corrupted zebras don't learn from their mistakes any better than corrupted ponies do: once again, she sent clouds of noxious smoke at them. And once again, Rainbow Dash's tornadoes sent them right back at her and gave Twilight the opening she needed to use her arrows on her.

But the hypnosis would be next, and Twilight tried to think of a way around it...what would work? Turning around? -No; she couldn't let an enemy as dangerous as Zecora out of her sight! She didn't want to have that wave of mind-control drown her with doubts again; she felt like she'd break down crying or screaming if that happened to her again, and then Zecora would win, and who knows what could happen to Equestria? If only there were someone who wouldn't go crazy when Zecora's corruption-given hypnotic magic was used on them-maybe someone who was already crazy...PINKIE! Of course!

But...how to get Pinkie to come out? Asking her to absorb a blow wasn't the nicest thing, but what if Pinkie could do something else...? "Pinkie, try your party cannon on her!"

Pinkie popped out, and fired her cannon at Zecora just as Zecora fired rings back at her. The rings were far too fast to dodge, and Zecora swatted away the fly strips before they could tangle her up. Pinkie was hit and was apparently lost in thought, too dazed to react to the things around her.

Zecora began dancing again, and Twilight shouted, "Pinkie, DO SOMETHING!" But it was too late: a spinning note slashed at Pinkie, and she yelped and fell over.

Twilight's wave of doubt gave way to a wave of rage: the corruption had _hurt Pinkie_. Not just hurt the poor, sensative creature's feelings: _injured _her. NO ONE hurts Pinkie! And as much as Twilight tried to push the realization out of her mind, she knew that it was her stupid idea to send Pinkie to absorb the hypnosis attack that got her injured.

Twilight's rage at herself, Zecora, and the corruption burned, and like any mare, she projected that rage onto Zecora. Her first thought was to pop out and blast Zecora with so many arrows, nothing could stop them. But she caught herself before she did that; she knew the gas clouds were next, so she just shouted, "Rainbow Dash, use your tornadoes on the gas clouds!"

Rainbow did as she was told as Zecora brought out her cauldron once again, and Zecora was stunned again. Twilight took that as the opportunity it was and finished the fight, snorting with rage-rage at herself for letting poor Pinkie get hurt, rage that the corruption would do something like this, rage at how her throat still hurt from the gas she'd been hit with earlier..._rage_!

Applejack's words cut through the fog of rage that clouded Twilight's mind. "What're you snortin' about, Twilight? We won!"

Twilight shook her head to try to clear it-frustration was added to the doubts in her mind, and she stood in awe that she could actually feel worse than she felt before. And she stopped herself: why was she getting mad at Zecora? Zecora's behavior while corrupted wasn't her fault any more than it had been Applejack's or Fluttershy's fault when she was fighting them. She shouldn't get mad at Zecora; Zecora was another one of her friends! What was she _thinking_?! Twilight suddenly felt terribly guilty, and felt like she had to say _something_. "Sorry," was all she managed to croak out.

Applejack seemed to sense that Twilight was in a daze, and she switched out and began explaining the situation to Zecora, and how they were looking for the core, and failing that, a fast way to the ruins of Everfree Palace.

Zecora shook her head sadly. She told them, in her rhyming style:

_Alas, I wish I could tell you more,_

_but I have not seen or heard of a core._

_But, if I really know my math,_

_it will save you an hour of you take _this _path!_

Applejack looked down the path Zecora was motioning down. "This'll take us to the castle?" Zecora nodded. "We'd better get a move on, then!"

"Wait!" Zecora said, a sad and guilty expression on her face. They had never seen this look on her before; she had been wise and impeccable before that day.

_I...I fear I never again shall know glee;_

_for Pinkie Pie was hurt...because of _me!

Pinkie's orb hovered close to Zecora. "It...hurts pretty bad, but Rarity can find some gems to heal me up," Pinkie hesitatingly answered.

Rarity popped out into physical form, surprising Zecora. "She's right; I'll take point and try to find more gems on our way to the castle."

Zecora blinked, startled that the Spell of Unity allowed them to switch out so quickly.

_This spell is proving stranger and stranger..._

_but I hope it keeps you safe from danger._

Rarity nodded back. "Thanks."

Twilight tried to force herself to speak, through the guilt, frustration, and doubt, "Try to get to Ponyville as fast as you can, Zecora-it's safe there." Thoughts of her home in Ponyville flooded her head, and she remembered that, the last she knew, Spike and the Mayor were hiding in the basement, completely unaware of what was going on outside-they were probably still in there, worried and hungry. And she'd forgotten to send word back to them that Ponyville was safe! ...She could do something about it now, though, if Zecora made it back. "And, if you make it back, please go to the Library-Spike and the Mayor are hiding in the basement, and they'll be hungry by now...!"

"Better run like you've never run before: if one of those animals so much as touches you, you'll be corrupted all over again!" Rainbow Dash pointed out.

"Should we...go with her?" Fluttershy asked.

Rarity hesitated. "I...I'm not sure we have time. Twilight, what do you think?"

Twilight didn't want to think; she felt very mixed up-she even hated herself for projecting her rage onto Zecora: _none_ of this was her fault! But she had to say something, so she just said, "Let's get to the castle as soon as we can!" trying to push ahead as much as she could.

Zecora nodded and galloped as fast as she could toward Ponyville.

Rarity trotted the other way down the path Zecora had shown them, using her horn magic to look for gems as they went. Each time she found one, she touched it to Pinkie's orb. Some of them were absorbed, and some weren't-Rarity put the ones that didn't work in her saddle bag. Twilight noted that the size and shape of the gems usually decided what worked and what didn't: smaller gems didn't work, while larger ones that were heart-shaped were absorbed. Some really big gems, shaped like suns, also didn't work to heal Pinkie. But it wasn't long before most of Pinkie's wounds were healed, and her orb began swinging back and forth with rekindled glee.

Twilight wanted to apologize to her friend-she hoped Pinkie would forgive her. So much was swarming her head-was she really evil under everything? Was evil even avoidable?-that she was afraid anything she said would come out wrong-for a moment, she wondered if it was ever possible at any time to avoid saying something wrong if evil was unavoidable-but she decided she had to try: "Pinkie, I'm sorry I told you to take point back there..."

Pinkie's answer came slowly. Pinkie never spoke slowly unless she was sad or hurt, so her very tone felt awful to Twilight. But the words were soothing enough: "It's...okay, Twilight. It's not _your_ fault; it's the corruption's fault. Don't feel sad about it! ...I _hate_ it when my friends are sad."

As childish as it was to put it that way, every word was right. And some part of Twilight knew it. Twilight was still afraid of what being injured had done to Pinkie emotionally and mentally, though, so she asked, "How are you doing?"

"It doesn't hurt as much, anymore. I think I'll be okay."

That wasn't quite what Twilight meant; she tried to think of a way to ask how Pinkie was doing emotionally without sounding too sappy. She wondered briefly if she shouldn't worry about sappiness, but she decided to put it this way: "That's how your body's doing, but how're _you _doing?"

Pinkie paused for a moment, then answered, "Getting hypnotized and then hurt was...scary. I'm still scared. But...I know I shouldn't be. I know I'll be all right because Rarity can heal me up-and because I'm with the rest of you. I know I shouldn't be scared, but...I am."

There was a pause-Rarity filled that pause by collecting more gems and trying to finish healing Pinkie.

Pinkie solemnly added, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, Sugarcube," Applejack chimed in. "We're ALL scared here. Everything we care about is at stake! _Our ability to care _about it all is at stake. It's okay to be scared...it's just not okay to let fear stop us from trying to fix it."

Twilight let the words soak into her sore brain. It was such plain, simple wisdom-again, from her friends. Would they be able to ease the pain of the questions that were bouncing around in her head, if she could ask them? But how could she explain it all to them? Nopony who hadn't done a lot of reading would know about Immanuel Kanter or Sigmund Fjord! And how could _they _forgive her for getting mad at _Zecora_? And how would Fluttershy react if Twilight told her that she was glad Fluttershy was _stupid_?! Her friends were _wise_, but they weren't _smart_ like she was. Usually she thought "wise" was better than "smart", but how can they understand what she's feeling if they aren't smart?

Her thoughts were interrupted as swarms of small animals began charging them, again.

Fluttershy popped out and glared at the little creatures. They froze in their tracks, and the corruption left them. Fluttershy smiled and whispered, "It's okay, little ones, I'm not mad at you. Now, hide your little selves and try to stay safe!" The animals obeyed at once, except for a few more birds that again began to circle around her to protect her.

They suddenly heard a loud snarl, followed by one, two, three-uncountable bone-chilling howls. They all knew exactly what that sound meant: timber wolves. _Corrupted_ timber wolves.

Fluttershy wasn't quite sure what to do; the canopy of the trees above was too thick to fly through, so flying away wasn't an option. She decided to try distracting them with her birds, so the moment they showed their faces, she sent her birds after them. But the wolves were only distracted for a moment; after that, they immediately turned their attention back on her. She gulped and tried to think what to do-but couldn't.

Pinkie willed herself into physical form. "I'm not gonna let fear stop _me_! I'll show you!" she shouted, blasting a wave of fly paper from her party cannon out over the wolves. Their thick, shaggy fur stuck fast to the fly strips, and for a few seconds, they couldn't move.

Twilight popped out and began firing arrows at the wolves, and soon, they were all uncorrupted. She sighed in relief. "And I was afraid they'd be hard to beat!" The wolves freed themselves from their sticky bonds, and began to close in on Twilight.

Applejack pointed out, "They might not be corrupted, but they're still predators!"

Pinkie popped back out and fired another wave of fly paper at them. All but one was immobilized, and Pinkie's cannon wasn't ready to fire again!

She didn't know what to do, either, but Rarity had an idea. She popped out into physical form and smacked the wolf with a gem-and he was frozen in a crystal prison. One by one she imprisoned the rest of the wolves as well.

Breathing heavily, she shouted, "Rainbow Dash, get us out of here before anything else happens!"

Rainbow Dash switched out and flew as fast as she could down the path.

Twilight suddenly got _another_ nerve-wracking thought: up until then, uncorrupting an enemy was always enough. Now, it _wasn't_ enough. Even worse, Zecora normally didn't have the kind of magic she had displayed during the fight-she'd never been able to use hypnosis or musical attack magic before: the corruption had to have given her those powers. What all was the corruption _capable _of? What if this adventure was going to be harder than they thought? ...Twilight didn't have the strength to push this thought aside; it stuck in her head. What if this was going to be harder than they thought? Would they be able to do it? Would they be strong enough-even together, would it be enough?

Twilight brooded over this question, would they be strong enough? They had faced a lot of things before-Nightmare Moon, DisQord, a dragon blowing smoke all over Equestria, a hydra, an army of changelings, a living shadow-but this was a whole new kind of evil that reached into the most inner parts of their being, their wills, and twisted them around into something horrible, something that knew only rage, hate, and anger. The more Twilight thought about it, the more it scared her.

She felt a whisper in her mind: "It's okay to be scared...it's just not okay to let fear stop us from trying to fix it." But there's more to it than that; what if all her desires to do anything to help are really just lies? She loved to read-almost more than she loved to be with her friends. Or was it more? That thought made her feel guilty, but shouldn't she feel guilty that it makes her feel guilty if all she really wants is to read? Is friendship even necessary? Is this really what she wants, deep down? She was getting sick and tired of all this doubt and guilt and frustration; she didn't want to think about it, but it _just kept coming _back to haunt her.

Her thoughts were interrupted again as Rainbow Dash asked, "Pinkie, just how much fly paper do you _have_ in that cannon?"

"A lot," Pinkie answered. After a pause, she added, "I don't think we're gonna run out this adventure."

Twilight tried to giggle-but she couldn't. Why does she have be keep doubting herself and her friends?

Thank goodness: the ruins of the castle quickly came into view, and Rainbow began flying a scouting run to see if she could find any trace of the core. All seven of them looked in all directions, high and low, for any signs of the core. But it just didn't seem to be there.

"Great...the core isn't here. NOW what do we do?" Rainbow groaned.

"I have an idea, but we'll need to find someplace safe where we can land," Celestia said.

Rainbow Dash veered toward the ruined courtyard of the castle and looked around. At first, it didn't seem like there were any enemies, but then she heard a snarl-it was a Manticore! Predictably, it was corrupted. Twilight wondered, _What kinds of magic will it have?_

Twilight popped out into physical form and fired a few arrows at the manticore to see what would happen. The manticore slashed at the arrows and splintered them to pieces. Twilight tried to think of a way to get the arrows to hit, but her doubts kept weighing her down. She knew she couldn't let them slow her down in the middle of a battle, but her brain felt cramped and exhausted. She just couldn't _think_! _And_ she was beginning to feel hungry again! Those cupcakes helped, but they weren't as filling as she'd have liked. _And_ Twilight suddenly felt that her bladder was full-of _all _the _times_!

Fluttershy popped out and tried to get close to the Manticore to see if her animal-calming aura helped. Sure enough, just by being near it, the corruption slowly faded from the huge monster. But the corruption didn't want to lose its grip on the creature so easily: it swiped at Fluttershy and sent her sailing into a tree. She let out a gasping shriek, and was obviously injured.

_No!_ Twilight thought. _Not Fluttershy, too! Oh, why do my poor friends have to get injured? Especially the ones that are hurt the __**most **__by it? Why does the world have to pick on the sensitive ones?!_

Rarity popped out and tried to hurl a gem at the manticore to keep it busy while she searched her bag for a heart-shaped gem to heal poor Fluttershy. The Manticore slashed at the gem, and that encased the manticore's paw in crystal. The manticore began banging the gem against the ground to try to break the crystal, and that gave Rarity the time she needed to find a heart-gem and heal Fluttershy up.

As soon as Fluttershy was healed, Twilight tried to pop out and use her arrows again, while the manticore was distracted by the crystal on his paw. Unfortunately, the manticore immediately slashed at her arrows, even with his paw encased in crystalline rock. Twilight snorted in frustration, realizing that Fluttershy's animal aura might be the only way to cure the manticore, and using that aura meant being near the manticore, which would put her in danger.

Her mind raced...how could they restrain the manticore so that Fluttershy wouldn't get hurt again? Fluttershy was weak and timid; she wouldn't stand up well to being hit again-emotionally _or_ physically.

Twilight thought of something random: "Rainbow Dash, try your tornadoes on that manticore!" Rainbow immediately popped out and blasted the manticore, who still struggling against the crystal on his paw. That unbalanced the manticore; it looked like it was about to fall over. That made Twilight wonder...could she use her arrows now? She popped out again and tried blasting the manticore, but the moment her arrows got near, the manticore swiped at them, destroyed them, and almost immediately regained its balance.

Enough-Twilight decided to stop trying her arrows. But the manticore didn't slow down; it began to send waves of magic that were almost exactly like the magic Trixie had used on them. Twilight thought, just for a moment, that this was a sign that at least some of Trixie's power was coming from the corruption in her, and wasn't part of her normal unicorn powers-but she had little trouble pushing this thought aside for the battle at hoof. Twilight did her best to dodge the incoming magic attacks, but she had a lot of close calls. Rainbow Dash popped out and began dodging, and she was much more agile and better able to avoid getting hit. After a few volleys of magic missed them, the manticore charged. Rainbow Dash easily dodged the charge, but the manticore quickly turned around and roared.

"Rarity! Your crystals!" Rainbow Dash shouted. It had been the only thing that worked, and it had proven very distracting. Rarity popped out, hurled a gem at the manticore, and true to their experience, the manticore hadn't learned from its mistake: its paw was encased in rock once again. Rainbow Dash popped out again and blasted the struggling manticore with another of her tornadoes, and the manticore was again unbalanced.

Twilight tried to think-they went wrong last time because she tried to user her arrows on him. There _had _to be a right thing to try, but what...? For a moment, she thought that Fluttershy should get near him again, but if he can regain his balance and senses for her arrows, he can regain his balance and senses for Fluttershy. Twilight had already made one bad call that resulted in Pinkie being hurt in a fight; she didn't want to be responsible for another bad call. So she decided that it was too soon and too dangerous for Fluttershy to get near the manticore again.

So what COULD they do? They needed to restrain him...what about Applejack's Lasso? "Applejack, try your lasso!" Applejack popped out and lassoed the manticore's flailing leg, giving it a good yank. The manticore flopped on its back and seemed to be in a daze. But it wasn't all tied up, so it wasn't quite restrained enough for Twilight to feel safe sending Fluttershy at him again.

Wait-would Pinkie's fly strips be enough to restrain it? "Pinkie, party cannon!" Twilight shouted. Pinkie popped out and covered the monster with fly paper, and it immediately began struggling against its bonds. It was restrained, at least for the moment.

"Fluttershy, get near him and try to cure him! But _be careful_!" Twilight shouted. Fluttershy popped out and landed near the manticore, and Twilight could see the corruption slowly seeping out of him. It was bizarre to think that, just by being near an enemy, they could damage him-or at least neutralize the treat he posed.

Twilight grew pensive as she pondered the strangeness of this battle, and then thought that there might be something that she had forgotten for a moment, something important and very sad that she didn't want to think about-then she began remembering the doubts she'd been plagued with. Her heart sank: for a moment, she forgot her troubles. For a moment, she was free-but no longer. If she'd still had eyes, she'd have shed a tear.

A ripping sound reminded her that she and her friends were in danger: the fly paper was beginning to tear. "GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Twilight screamed at Fluttershy, but she was already flying away to get some distance between him and her.

By now, her friends knew how to finish the battle; they could repeat what they had done before to finish the fight: crystal, tornado, lasso, cannon, and then Fluttershy simply stands by the Manticore. Twilight became lost in thought, lost in her doubts once again. Before she realized it, the battle was over-she didn't even remember how many times they had had to repeat the cycle to win. It was pathetic and frustrating how lost in her thoughts she was. Again, she longed to tell someone, _anyone_, but especially her friends, what she was thinking. And she hoped-_oh_, how she hoped!-that they could prove every one of her doubts wrong.

She could hardly pay attention as Fluttershy nuzzled the now-gentle giant, said some words of encouragement, and sent it on its way. But when Celestia spoke, Twilight was shaken out of her obsessive, unwanted doubts, even if only for a moment:

"There is one thing I can try to find the core, but...the results are impossible to predict. I may have to re-cast the Spell of Unity, depending on what happens."

Applejack asked, "What d'ya mean, yer Highness?"

"The scroll that had the Spell of Unity on it was very badly damaged, and parts of it seemed to imply that something was-_different _for when the caster of the spell came into physical form, herself. I saw the words 'danger' and 'less stable', but there was no context to go with them. So there's no telling what will happen if I go into material form, myself."

Twilight wondered, _How would you going into material form help?_ She tried to will her voice to say it, but all that came out was some kind of coughing squeak.

"Oh, mercy me! I'd completely forgotten what corrupted!Zecora did to your throat!" Rarity scolded herself. She switched out into physical form and began rooting through her pack for a heart-gem for Twilight. "But, Princess, why shouldn't you stay in spirit form, then?"

"I know of a spell-it's called a 'radar' spell, and it sends out a pulse of energy in all directions that echoes off of whatever it is the spell is supposed to find. How long it takes for the echo of the spell to return, and what direction it comes from when it does, tells me where the object I'm looking for is located. I can use this spell to find the core. But depending on the distance, it could take hours for it to return. We'd have to-"

"Couldn't Twilight cast the spell instead of you?" Rainbow Dash asked. Her orb suddenly went beet-red with embarassment, and she quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, Princess; I shouldn't have interrupted you like that-"

Celestia stopped her: "_Don't_ worry about interrupting me, Rainbow Dash-and that goes for all the rest of you, too. If you have something to say or there's something you've thought of that the rest of us haven't, then it's better to interrupt me or anypony else than it is to keep silent. I'd rather we succeed in freeing Equestria while I temporarily leave behind some of my privileges as Princess than keep those privileges and fail this mission because of poor communication." The Princess paused. Then she added, "...Actually, I'm glad this came up; it's very important we establish that all of you _can_ and even _should_ interrupt me. If we don't have that ground rule in place, there won't be good communication, and poor communication can be _fatal_."

Rainbow Dash gulped, and said, "Uh...thanks for telling us, Princess, but...why can't Twilight cast the spell instead of you if it's so risky, Princess?"

_I can't use any magic at all except the arrows of light!_ Twilight thought. _Wait-did I say that, or just think it?_ Twilight wondered.

Celestia herself answered, "The Spell of Unity puts a limit on what Twilight's magic can do; if she tries to use her magic for anything other than the Arrows of Light, it could disrupt the Spell of Unity. We can't take that risk. Besides, I didn't bring the radar spell's scroll with me; she wouldn't be able to cast the spell because she doesn't know it. I've memorized the spell, so I'm the only one who could use it, in any case.

"So...even though this is a risk, I'm going to try it." Celestia popped out into physical form, but surprisingly, Rarity stayed in physical form-the two mares stood side-by-side.

"I-I'm not a spirit?" Rarity wondered aloud.

Celestia looked confused for a second, then decided not to let this slow her down. "I knew the rules for me would be a little different, but I didn't know in what way. It appears I can switch in and out of physical form at will, independent of the rest of you. But it's possible that it's more dangerous for me to be in physical form-I'm not sure, the scroll was too damaged to be certain." Celestia dropped the subject and began weaving a golden glow of energy with her horn. A faint ring appeared around her, like a halo, then grew larger quickly and disappeared with a soft, indescribable noise. "It's done...now we need to remain here until the radar comes back to us."

Celestia lay down on the ground, tucking her hooves underneath herself. She began looking around, saw some wildflowers, and began plucking them out of the ground with her horn magic, stacking them into a small pile next to her. She ate a few herself, then said, "There's no telling how long it'll take for the radar to get back to us. While we're waiting, we should take care of your bodies' needs. Eat up, everypony-we'll need our strength for this adventure."

Celestia went back into spirit form. One by one the ponies took turns in physical form, eating the flowers and stalks. Twilight went last, and she was still lost in doubt, but began wondering, trying, probing her imagination for a way to explain her doubts to her friends so that they could understand her. But it was so frustrating; everything she thought of-and she couldn't think of much-just plain wouldn't _work_; any other philosopher's work to which she could compare Sigmund Fjord or Immanuel Kanter would just go over their heads.

As Twilight finished her lunch, she immediately and uncomfortably remembered how full her bladder was. It almost hurt, it was so full. She looked around, and saw that there was a small drop-off on one side of the courtyard; she could empty her innards over that. But-her friends were all there... "I need to...use the little filly's room," Twilight slowly said, doubts and questions and longing to speak with her friends tainting her tone with frustration and uncertainty. "Can you all give me a little privacy?"

Applejack hesitatingly answered, "I...don't think we can, Twilight. I mean, this Spell of Unity doesn't let us."

"Well..." Twilight struggled to think, getting more and more frustrated. "Can you all just...look away for a minute?" Her friends' spirit orbs stayed motionless. "Are you looking away?" she asked angrily.

"We're looking away, Twilight."

Twilight backed up to the small cliff, eyeing the orbs as they followed her. There was no reaction from them, and she waited in silence-agonizing silence as her bladder complained and complained that it was too full. Finally, Twilight decided she could wait no longer: she swished her tail up and to the side, and let everything splatter out to the ground a story below. Twilight herself couldn't believe how long it took to get everything out, but the relief she was getting was literally sorely needed.

Finally, everything was out. It still hurt a little, but Twilight knew it would pass. She looked around for something to wipe off with, and saw some small leaves on a vine nearby. She used her hoof to snap one off, but paused, looking at it. There was something about that leaf-where had she seen it before...?

"Oh, don't wipe with that, Twi," Applejack said. "That's poison ivy. You don't wanna see the results of THAT, now do ya?" Applejack began chuckling.

_They're laughing at me!_ Twilight thought to herself. _I'm in pain-physically and mentally, and they're __**laughing at me!**_ Twilight roared, "_I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU'D LOOK AWAY!_"

Applejack's orb took on a pink, embarrassed hue. "I'm sorry, Twi, I heard-I thought you were... I'm looking away, now."

Twilight let out a groaning growl, snorted, and found a non-poisonous leaf to wipe with. She angrily walked back to the spot where Celestia had cast the spell from. She began to think that her friends not only wouldn't be able to help her sort through all the things she'd been doubting herself and the world about, but they would be _unwilling_ to help her. _They'd just laugh at me again!_ Twilight thought. _Is that all I am to them? A laughingstock?_ She narrowed her eyes, lay down, crossed her hooves, and sulked in fury.

"We're still looking away," Pinkie said.

"Pinkie!" Rarity scolded.

"_I'm done._" Twilight growled back through her teeth. She wasn't done with her doubts, though, as much as she wished otherwise. And her friends wouldn't be any help, either.

The orbs didn't seem to react at first, then Applejack's orb floated in front of Twilight's face. "Twilight...I'm sorry fer lookin' too soon. It was an honest mistake! Please don't be mad at me!"

"I'm _not_ mad at you," Twilight answered darkly.

Applejack paused for a moment, before deciding to answer honestly: "...Yes, you are, and I have _no idea why_!"

Twilight didn't answer. She didn't want to be laughed at again.

After a pause, Applejack continued, "Listen, Twilight...I can tell something's bugging you, an' it's more than just my accidental peek-a-boo-I know you well enough to say that much. And I'd give my hat to make ya feel better, you know I would!"

Twilight's scowl faded, replaced with a sad frown. She began to wonder if her friends really wanted to help her, after all-why was she getting mad at her friends? She should know better than to think they just want to make her feel worse!

Applejack couldn't stand the silence any longer. "Listen...Twilight...it seems like every other week, one of us goes crazy and needs the other five to help her out of her funk. I'd like to think we're learning our lessons from all that instead of forgettin' everything we've ever learned from each other. So please...just tell us what's bugging you. Maybe we can help."

There was a pause as Twilight began to wonder whether her friends really could help her; she began asking herself again how she could explain it. Using other ponies-what words did Kanter use to describe it? _Hypothetical imperatives?_ ...Those words would go right over their heads; they just about went over Twilight's head when she was in this state! And other philosophers who commented on Kanter, like Georg Frederick Wilhelm Hobble-they'd go right over her friends' heads, too!

"But...well, I wantcha to know just one thing," Applejack interrupted Twilight's vain attempts to think of a way to communicate. "Even if you don't wanna talk about it-we're still yer friends. We still trust you an'...an' want what's best for you, an'...an' if you don't wanna talk about it, we'll just accept that, and keep bein' yer friends."

Twilight realized that she _could_ count on her friends to help her out of her doubts-if only she could find a way to explain them. But _how_?! How can she even _begin_ to explain it all to them? She wanted to open up and get help from her friends; she was sure of that, now. Her friends wanted to help her out and help her feel better; she was sure of that, too. But one final wall remained between her and relief-a cruel glass wall that taunted and tantalized her, letting her see relief, but not letting her touch it: she couldn't put what she was feeling into words so that her friends, with their simple, plain, soothing wisdom, could help her figure out her doubts.

Twilight sobbed, and a few tears dribbled down her muzzle. "It's not that I don't _want_ to talk about it," Twilight finally moaned. "It's that I can't put it into words!"

"...It's not what _I_ said to you when I was corrupted, is it?!" Rainbow gasped.

"No," Twilight sobbed back, realizing only a split-second after she said "no" that corrupted!Rainbow Dash's words _were_ part of the reason why she felt so terrible. But should she correct herself? No-she didn't want to make Rainbow Dash feel terrible, and even if she said "yes", how could she explain Sigmund Fjord's theories to them?

"You're tired and confused, Darling," Rarity said. "And nopony can blame you for it. This has been an absolutely _horrid_ adventure; I don't know about the rest of you, but I still feel just _awful_ about fighting with you and the others! Now, I know it wasn't my fault, but I still feel terrible about it. Having to fight your own closest friends-it's no wonder you're feeling so mixed up, Twilight!"

"Why don't you stay in spirit form for a little while?" Fluttershy suggested. "Maybe you'll feel better if you get a little down-time?"

Twilight didn't think rest would help her feel better-until she found a way to explain Sigmund Fjord and Immanuel Kanter, she was convinced she couldn't get lasting relief from her friends. But-some rest would do her good. And the food the Princess provided for them did make her feel a little better, and it came just when she needed it. So she decided she'd rest a while, and try not to think about anything. Maybe the stress would go away, and she'd be able to think clearer. Until then, she'd stop worrying about things, stay in spirit form, and just rest.

For the next little while, she was in a state that was something like sleep-almost in a dream-like trance, she was half-aware of the things that went on around her, but half-felt like they weren't happening to her. In a way, they weren't, since her friends were taking care of everything that happened. She couldn't tell just how long they stayed at the ruins of the palace, but while they were waiting, she knew that some of her friends also used the little filly's room, but she didn't know which ones. She saw that the magical radar came back and told Celestia that the core they were looking for was in some caves east of the palace. She saw her friends move through the forest, pacifying small animals with Fluttershy's kindness aura, distracting foxes, badgers, and larger animals with Fluttershy's birds, immobilizing huge animals with Rarity's crystal prisons, and using other tactics she couldn't recall.

Then they came to the caves, and found that their own spirit orbs projected enough light for them all to see where they were going, and Fluttershy was able to send bats against anything dangerous that was in the cave. There were bears and kobolds and huge spiders to worry about, and the caves were like a maze. But there was also an abundance of gems-no matter what happened to them, they wouldn't get too wounded to continue. Finally, they found the core-it was unguarded by anything other than the cave maze.

Twilight seemed to awaken as she was drawn into physical form along with her five friends; she slipped her tiara on, and with her friends, blasted the core with the Elements of Harmony. She felt relieved and did feel quite a bit better from having had a nice, long "nap". But she still had unanswered questions, and she _still _couldn't think of a way to explain to her friends what had been bugging her.

Just like the last core had, this core exploded and scattered gems all over the floor of the cave. Rarity scooped them up into her saddle bag, but let out a little gasp.

"What is it?" Celestia asked.

"I had well over a hundred small gems in here, but-now there's another big sunstone in here! Those small gems couldn't have _become_ a sunstone, could they?"

Celestia sighed. "I didn't want to worry you about this, but...well, the six of you have a right to know what I know, even if it is incomplete information."

"What're you talking about?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"There was mention of a sunstone in the scroll, and there was mention of small gems becoming a sunstone. But there were three words that appeared in a damaged portion of the scroll, not long after the sunstones were mentioned. One of those words was 'time'. Another was 'memory'." After a sad pause, Celestia continued, "The last word...was 'death'.

"Please, don't panic," she continued. "There's no telling what it was talking about, and from what I know of how the Spell of Unity is supposed to work magically, there is no possible way that the sunstones we've collected could cause any of us to die. But they have something to do with time, memory, and death, and I don't know what."

"Should I...drop the sunstones I'm carrying?" Rarity asked.

"No; it was _definitely_ a deliberate part of the Spell of Unity that the small gems would be merged into sunstones when you get enough of them. We're supposed to want to get as many sunstones as we can-that much I know. But we must be careful; there's no telling what the scroll meant when it spoke of death."

Twilight gulped. A scary silence hung in the air.

The Spell of Unity kicked in, and they were out of time to be all in physical form at once: only Twilight remained in physical form, and everypony else was a spirit orb, again.

They needed that to interrupt the scary questions that were occurring to them all. Twilight tried to think what to do next. "Do we...need to go all the way back through the caves to get out?" A crackling noise answered Twilight, and a sudden cave-in sent a boulder falling, blocking the passageway they had come in through. After another scary silence, Twilight gulped. "NOW what?"

Pinkie's orb suddenly began bouncing. "Ooo! Ooo! My Pinkie-sense is telling me something!"

"What? What?"

Pinkie switched out and looked at a wall. She began shaking all over. "There's a way out through that wall!"

"How are we supposed to get through a wall?" Twilight asked.

Applejack popped out, walked up to the wall, and tapped it with her hoof. It made a hollow klunk. "It's not a very thick wall; I'll see if I can buck through it." She turned around, wound up, and kicked the wall solidly. It gave way easily, and there was a passageway leading away from the core's chamber. "Awright, let's go!"

"Waaaaait!" Pinkie shouted.

"What's wrong?" Fluttershy asked.

"Right before I switched out with Applejack...my knee got pinchy."

They all gulped.

"Your knee is pinchy?" Celestia asked.

Twilight quickly explained, "Pinkie Pie gets these psychic pains or feelings or tremors, and they can predict the future-kind of. I still don't understand them, but she's got a sixth sense about them. I guess it's some kind of weird magic that we still don't understand...but we know that, when her knee gets pinchy, that means that something scary is about to happen. So we need to be _extra_-careful."

"Maybe Pinkie should go first?" Applejack suggested. "Y'know, so she can sense things better?"

"Okie-dokie-loki!" Pinkie sang. Out she came, and she began to bounce down the tunnel.

They were coming up to a large chamber, and Pinkie froze in her tracks. "My knee is pinchy again!" she moaned. Then she looked up and saw an enormous green dragon. Twilight recognized that this was the same dragon she and Owliscious saved Spike from months ago.

The dragon noticed Pinkie, frowned and roared at her. "I've had my fill of ponies!" the dragon snarled at her. Pinkie didn't move, other than trembling. The dragon began inhaling, obviously to breathe fire at them.

"Pinkie, DO SOMETHING!" Twilight shouted.

Pinkie whipped out her party cannon and screamed at the dragon, "I'm not scared!" She launched a barrage of fly paper into the dragon's mouth, but it was too late: the dragon blew fire at her, and incinerated the fly strips.

Twilight tried to think, but it was too late: nopony could live through a direct blast of fire from a dragon, and there was no cover anywhere-_this was it_! She felt the searing heat of the dragon's flame everywhere around her, and then everything went black...

The next thing Twilight knew, she was back in the chamber where the core had been, and she and her friends were uninjured.

"Wh-what just happened?" Applejack asked.

Pinkie was trembling, teeth grit, and just as confused as the rest of them. "Did I..._not_ survive that?" she asked. "Because...this doesn't look like pony Heaven...and...and _I don't wanna be in the other place_!"

"Of course," Celestia thought aloud. "_That's_ what it meant!"

"What _what _meant?" Twilight asked.

"The scroll: when one of us dies from injuries, the Spell of Unity reverses time! Your injuries are undone, and whoever dies is brought back to life-but what does it have to do with the sunstones?"

Rarity switched out into physical form and opened her saddle bag. She gasped. "I had eight sunstones before we went into that dragon's lair, and now I only have seven!" Rarity suddenly became very angry. "That _thieving lizard_! I'll take his whole hoard and see how HE likes it!"

"Wait...that's what the scroll meant!" Celestia thought aloud. "Every time the Spell of Unity brings us backwards in time, the spell must consume a sunstone to do it!"

Rarity was in awe. "You mean these gems can actually keep us alive, even when we meet an early end?"

"Apparently, yes," Celestia thought aloud. She sighed. "This is really making me wish I knew more about the Spell of Unity in advance. I _hate_ the thought of having to learn everything by trial and error, since errors could spell doom for Equestria. But...at least we now know we have _some_ insurance for ourselves with the sunstones."

"I'll make a point of collecting as many sunstones as I can, then," Rarity thought aloud.

"But, uh...what about the word, 'memory', Princess?" Fluttershy asked.

There was a pause as Celestia considered the question. "Perhaps...perhaps we are the only ones who remember anything that happened between the time we were snapped back from and now?"

"Maybe," Twilight agreed. "I guess we'll find out when we see the dragon again."

"W-w..._When_ we see the dragon again?!" Fluttershy whimpered. She let out a squeak of terror and whimpered, "Ohhh..._please _can we try to find another way out?!"

"I'm with Fluttershy on this one," Applejack agreed, "I don't think it's a fight we can win, and it _definitely_ ain't worth the risk. We gotta find another way out; lemme at that boulder!" Applejack popped out and began shoving away at the boulder that was blocking the way they came in. She sweated and strained against the boulder, but it didn't budge. Gasping and panting, Applejack sighed, "It's no use...we gotta figure out a way past that dragon, or else we're stuck in this here cave...forever!"

Twilight began to think aloud. "If only there were a way to stop him using his fire breath...! What if...what if you threw a gem in his mouth while he was inhaling, Rarity?"

"It's worth a try," Rarity thought.

"Why don't I just fly past him?" Rainbow Dash suggested. "I can get past him so fast, he won't even see me! He'll think he _imagined _me!"

Twilight tried to shake her head, but all that did was make her orb sway side to side. "There wasn't enough room; he was blocking the whole way out! If we just had enough room, that would be the perfect way out of here...we just need to keep alert and keep thinking of whatever we can to get past him..."

It didn't take long for them to get back to the dragon's lair, and once again, he shouted down to them with a roar, "I've had my fill of ponies!" Twilight knew immediately that Celestia's hunch about what the word "memory" meant was true: the dragon didn't remember a thing about their previous fight. But Twilight didn't say anything.

Rarity took point, and while the dragon was inhaling, she hurled a gem into his mouth-apparently, it grew into a cystral prison somewhere in his windpipe, because he suddenly began choking and writhing. But he still blocked the whole passageway out; Rainbow Dash's speed was still useless against him.

After a few seconds, the dragon seemed to crack the crystal inside him and swallow it. He glared darkly at them and snorted smoke at them.

Rainbow Dash switched out and used a tornado to blast the smoke back in the dragon's face. The dragon looked like he was about to sneeze, and began inhaling again. Rarity took that as the opportunity it was and hurled a gem into his mouth, again. His mouth was locked shut with crystal, and he looked like he was in some kind of a daze.

Twilight looked around-now was the time to strike, but what could possibly do enough damage to hurt a dragon? Or at least make him stagger to the point where he'll get out of the way?

She looked up at the ceiling of the cave-there was a boulder that looked like it was about ready to fall. But the dragon's head wasn't under it! How could they get his head under that boulder? -Applejack's lasso!

"Applejack, use your lasso! Look at the ceiling!"

Applejack did as she was told and immediately knew what Twilight was thinking. She yanked the dragon's head under the boulder, kicked the wall, and let the boulder drop onto the dragon's head. The dragon was knocked out instantly, and a sliver of moonlight shone from behind him. Rainbow Dash instantly switched out and flew as fast as she could for that sliver, and soared as quickly as she could out of the cave and into the night sky.

"Yeah-haaaah!" Rainbow Dash whooped. "Where do we go next?"

"We need to find somewhere else to send the radar off from to find the next core, and the ruins of Everfree Palace are the best place-their elevation means the spell will have the least amount of interference," Celestia answered.

"Um...wouldn't it be, you know, a little safer if we, um...went to Ponyville first, and sent the radar from there?" Fluttershy asked.

"We need to get the radar spell sent as quickly as possible; every minute counts. Besides, we need to find shelter quickly; I don't like the look of those clouds."

Rainbow Dash looked up, and a bank of gloomy clouds were creeping through the night sky, blocking out the stars. "Those? I've seen a million clouds like 'em. I promise you: nothing wetter than drizzle is _ever_ gonna come out of those."

Twilight tried not to think about her doubts, and said, "The night...is starting to get a lot colder, since the sun has been down for so long. And water has a very high specific heat; if we start to get wet, we'll get very cold, very fast. We should try to stay dry if we can-even if we wouldn't pay attention to drizzle back in Ponyville, we should find shelter now."

Rainbow rolled her eyes and sped toward the palace ruins. She landed in the courtyard again, outside a small archway that led into a dome-like, tiny building that was still intact, clean, and dry on the inside after all these centuries-the perfect shelter.

Celestia switched out into physical form, sent out her radar again, again plucked as many wildflowers and stalks of tall grass as she could, put them in a pile, and hid inside the archway. One by one, the six ponies switched out, lay down next to Celestia, and ate their fill-and again, Twilight was the last.

She was somewhat depressed and still shaken up from-well, _dying_. She felt like things were just getting worse and worse: first, she had her doubts, then frustrations and guilt were layered on top of that, and now she and her friends had made a mistake and actually _died_. Granted, they were together and alive, now, but how much worse could things _get_? The wind whistled coldly outside, and answered Twilight's question. She shuddered against the chill, and wished she'd thought to bring a cape or sweater along for this adventure.

Suddenly, she felt something very warm and very soft spread over her back. What was that? A blanket? But they hadn't brought a blanket with them; how could this possibly be? Then it dawned on Twilight: she must be dreaming. Everything that had happened to her, all the danger and every doubt she'd thought of, was all just a nightmare, and she was actually safe at home in bed-the covers had just fallen off, and Spike must've woken up in the night and put the covers back over her. What a nice, thoughtful assistant!

Outside the archway, drizzle began to fall silently-in fact, it seemed to make the night even quieter than it had been before. Twilight barely noticed it, and didn't think it was important, anyway, since it was all just a dream.

Suddenly, Twilight felt a tug on the covers that moved her closer to-who was it again? Someone really close to her heart... Twilight looked up from her reverie, and saw that Celestia had spread her wing over Twilight to keep her warm. ...This was no dream...it was real, after all. Twilight's heart sank.

"Why are you so sad, Twilight?" Celestia asked, concerned. "You used to love it when I put my wing over you."

Twilight sniffled and nuzzled her mentor in apology. She remembered the first time Celestia had tucked her under her wing, when she was a little filly, studying away in the cold basement of the palace, alone. She had been absolutely thrilled to be that close to the Princess, and to discover how affectionate and caring the Princess really was. But now, knowing she was under Celestia's wing instead of in bed was a saddening thought-what had once made her happy, now made her sad.

She decided to tell Celestia everything, in complete, open honesty-she didn't want to hurt her feelings, and thought she'd understand. "I'm sorry, it's just that...when you put your wing over me...for a second, I didn't realize it was you. I thought it was a blanket, and that I was in bed, and all this was just a dream..."

She felt a warm nuzzle on her forehead. "I wish it were all a dream, too. You've every right to be disappointed that it isn't. But don't worry. We'll get through this."

Celestia motioned with her head for the five mares in spirit form to also come under her wing to snuggle against the cold. They clustered together next to Twilight, and there they sat for a while, waiting for the radar to come back, trying to get comfortable and keep warm.

Celestia broke the silence. "Twilight, are you feeling any better?"

The doubts that were lingering just below the surface rose up in Twilight's mind again. She just _couldn't _forget them for long. And her friends wouldn't be able to help her-but then it dawned on Twilight: _maybe Celestia could_! But..._would _she? ...She was one of the most compassionate and affectionate ponies Twilight knew; of _course_ Celestia would condescend to her strange needs! Twilight was sure of it.

"It's just...the more I think about the corruption, and what it does to everypony...the worse it all gets..." Twilight inhaled deeply and tried to think where to start. "Princess...do you remember the work of Immanuel Kanter?"

Celestia smiled and nodded slowly, "He was one of my students, a long, long time ago. He was my protégé in his day, much the same way you are today. I remember him _very_ well."

Twilight's spirit rose a little: Celestia would be intimately acquainted with his work! "He said that we should _never_ use ponies, or anyone who can talk, as a means to an end. But...back in Ponyville, the only way I could survive...was to do just _that_."

"...What do you mean?"

"Well...when a crowd of corrupted ponies came at me, the way I survived was I cured a few on the edges of the herd, and then the ones I cured ran away screaming, and that lured the whole herd away, so that they were chasing the ones I cured instead of chasing me. Doesn't that mean I was _using _the ponies I was curing?"

Celestia thought it over for several seconds, then asked, "Did you have any other choice?"

"That's _another_ thing that bugs me. I mean, if it's wrong to use other ponies, but I don't have any other choice then-then that means you _have _to do the wrong thing to get by! What kind of world is it where you _have _to do the wrong thing?"

"Shhhh," Celestia quietly whispered, trying to buy herself time to think. "This world wasn't always beautiful and safe. It _can _be, and has been, a terrible place-a place where we all have to make hard choices just to survive. It's only by working with diligence and care that we can make the world a better place where those kinds of hard choices aren't necessary. And all ponykind has been doing _just that _for over a thousand years to make Equestria as happy and prosperous as it is today..." Celestia's tone grew sad, suddenly, as she remembered that the threat at hoof. "...or as happy and prosperous as it was _yesterday_..."

After a pause, Celestia added, "Even when you use those other ponies to keep yourself safe, know that you're doing what it takes to make Equestria safe and happy again-even what it takes to make those ponies you're using safe and happy again. You're doing what you have to do. _And _you're doing the right thing. Immanuel Kanter was a brilliant pony, but even he didn't know everything. He certainly didn't see _this_ coming."

Twilight sniffled as her doubts began to die; she felt quite a bit better, but there was unfortunately a lot more on her mind than just that. What should she ask about next? ...Her friends! Of course! "Thanks, Princess...I needed to hear that, but...a lot more than that is bugging me. When I was first fighting Fluttershy, and I realized that corrupted ponies can't learn from their mistakes...I realized that the dark magic that made them want to attack also made them stupid, and...and for a minute...I was _glad _that Fluttershy was stupid." Twilight's face flushed with embarassment, and she looked at Fluttershy's yellow and pink spirit orb. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy."

"Oh! You don't need to apologize to _me_! _I_ need to apologize to _you_!" Fluttershy insisted. "I was the one who hated you; I was the one who attacked you!"

"But...I can't believe I was _glad _that you were _stupid_!"

"_I'm _glad I was stupid!" Fluttershy insisted.

…There was a somewhat awkward pause in the conversation, at this point. Neither of them was _quite_ sure how to break the silence; laughing seemed…_less than appropriate_.

Finally, Fluttershy stammered, "Because, um...since I didn't learn from my mistakes, you could...you know...cure me better..."

Twilight sniffled again. Another of her doubts was gone. Then she remembered how mad she got at Zecora, and continued, "And...during that fight with Zecora-"

Pinkie interrupted Twilight, talking just as fast as she could: "Don't be mad at yourself Twilight I forgive you I forgive you _please _stop being sad about it Twilight I know you were doing your best when you told me to use my party cannon on Zecora and she smacked all the fly strips away with one swipe and I looked deep in her eyes and she put me in trances and she did her evil dances and I got smacked by the music notes and I was bleeding and it hurt _so bad _and I was scared but I don't want you to feel bad about it because I know you didn't know it would happen and you care about me so you'd _never _let something like that happen if you could help it but you couldn't help it so I forgive you so pleeeeeeeease don't feel bad! _Pleeeeease_?!"

Twilight tried to let her thoughts catching up with Pinkie's words. Her first impulse was to yell at Pinkie for going too fast, but she stopped herself before she did-that would only make things worse. She should say something nice, something kind and soothing... "Thanks, Pinkie," was all she could think of. "But...it's not that. It's...I got mad at Zecora. And I knew I was the one who made a mistake, and...and that's why I got mad."

"Don't feel so bad about all that, Sugarcube," Applejack answered. "We're all pretty mad at ourselves, too, for what we did when we were corrupted. Having your heart turned inside out...well, it makes _everypony_ confused about their feelin's. But you're not mad at her now, and she's not mad at you now. That's the important thing."

Twilight still felt a little guilty, but she knew she'd be easily forgiven for that moment of hate, however pointless it was. She was actually running out of doubts to worry about and explain, and it was a relief that she was running out of them. But the last one, as it came into focus, she remembered was the worst...and she remembered how deep it cut into the very core of her beliefs: was the id all there was to a pony's identity? Was every kind or selfless act she'd ever done a lie?

Twilight swallowed hard, and hoped Celestia and her friends would be wise enough to answer this one, too. "There's one more thing...just one more, but...it scares me. A lot." She paused to try to think how to say it, and stiffened herself for the pain that came with having the thought go through her head and out her mouth. "Princess...you know about the work of Sigmund Fjord?"

Celestia nodded. "I never met him, but I know of his work."

"He divided the mind into three parts...the id, which is all about raw emotions and desires; the superego, which is basically the conscience; and the ego, which mediates between the two. And...I'm terrified that the id is what really defines us."

"...But doesn't that contradict what Fjord said? I thought he said that the superego and ego are as much a part of you as your id is."

"But...but the id is about what we _want_! It's about our goals-and...and it doesn't always tell us to do the right thing. Are we...lying to ourselves about who we are when we listen to our consciences?" Twilight's voice was beginning to crack; it was clear to all present that this was scaring her a lot.

Celestia gently shook her head. "Do you want that to be true?"

"...No..."

"That says a lot about what you really want, deep down...if you don't _want _to want something bad."

Twilight had to go over that statement in her head several times before the meaning sunk in...and suddenly, her doubts seemed downright silly. Just a little reflection, and she'd have known that what she wanted wasn't evil. She wanted to see her friends happy; she wanted to see even strangers smile. Her temptations didn't define her! She defined herself by making choices-choices that made her and her friends happy.

Why did she ever doubt these things? All she did was tie herself up inside, emotionally and mentally.

But she felt a lot better now.

Twilight smiled and gently rested her head on Celestia's shoulder, feeling like she'd put down a heavy burden and could finally rest. "Thanks."

"Whatever made you think that the id was all there was to the mind?" Celestia asked.

To Twilight, the question itself was the important thing, not how the question came up. But Twilight wanted to tell her mentor and Princess the truth, so she answered, "Well...when the corruption was making Rainbow Dash talk, and she said we were all lying to ourselves and pretending to be something we're not, I remembered what Fjord said about the id, and that's what-"

Rainbow Dash's sobs cut Twilight off. Twilight paused in shock; she had never once heard or seen Rainbow Dash cry before. This wasn't like her at all; Twilight silently noted to herself that it took a _special_ kind of evil to make _Rainbow Dash _cry.

Twilight took Rainbow's orb between her hooves and held it in front of her face. Between sobs, Rainbow blubbed, "I can't believe I...something I said...hurt you, Twilight! I'm sorry, I'm sorry; I couldn't stop myself! I'm _sorry_!"

Twilight hesitated for a moment, not sure how to react. Finally, she rubbed Rainbow's spirit against her cheek. "It's okay, Rainbow...I don't blame you for how bad I've felt since we left Ponyville; it's not _your_ fault, it's the corruption! _It _was trying to mess with my head, not you!" Suddenly, Twilight gasped. "Wait...I just thought of something!"

"NO! _PLEASE_! Don't _think_, Twilight! _Thinking_ makes everything get _worse_!"

"No-no, trust me, you need to hear this. What if the corruption wasn't just trying to get to _me _when it made you say those things? What if it was trying to get to _you_, too?"

Rainbow's sobs stopped short when she heard that. There was another pause.

"Tell you what," Twilight suggested, "I won't let it get to me, if you won't let it get to you. Deal?"

Rainbow sniffled, and answered, "Deal."

Twilight rubbed her face to wipe the tears off of it. She felt a lot better now, and it was none too soon. She was tired of being sad, confused, and terrified of questioning the world around her, and she hoped that she could finally put it all behind her. She half-thought that there was one question that still scared her, but she couldn't remember what it was, and had confidence that, even if she did remember it, either her friends, or Celestia, would be able to answer it. So she decided not to worry about it or even try to remember it. She wanted her worries behind her.

"Twilight...there's something that's been bugging me, too," Pinkie said.

Twilight stopped mentally patting herself on the back-she'd been concerned about her own doubts and feelings, and it hadn't even occurred to her that her friends might have doubts of their own. She was a bit ashamed that it hadn't occurred to her that she wasn't the only one hurting on the inside, but she decided she could do something about it, now.

She looked at Pinkie's orb, hovering near her shoulder just under Celestia's wing, and asked, "What's bugging you?"

"Do you think I'm...still a filly?"

Twilight tried to find a right answer to that question in her mind. She knew she couldn't let silence linger for too long. So she admitted, "You...aren't quite grown-up. Maybe you never will be, but...but that's not necessarily a bad thing." Twilight tried to think of how to say it. "I mean, you're still loads of fun to be around-for us, and for every pony in Ponyville. And you can be responsible, and successful, and happy, so...don't feel bad that you're still a filly at heart." For a moment, Twilight thought to bring up a common psychological theory that every pony is really just a foal with culture layered on top, but she was a little worried this would go over Pinkie's head, so she decided to leave it at that.

Celestia chimed in, "I've seen a thousand years of cultural change, and I can tell you that the answer to the question 'What is an adult mare?' is _constantly_ changing-there _is_ no one right answer. So don't be sad that your answer is different from other ponies', Pinkie."

Pinkie sniffled. "Thanks..."

Twilight could tell that it had been bugging Pinkie a lot. This corruption somehow knew exactly how to get under each pony's skin, and it did a good job of messing with their heads. It was _scary_ how smart it was.

Twilight decided she'd speak up about it. "Guys...this corruption is obviously trying to mess with our heads, and it seems to know _exactly _what to do to hurt us the most. I think we need to promise each other _now _that we're not going to let it get to us."

"You mean-Pinkie-promise?" Pinkie asked.

Twilight smiled. "Why not?"

Pinkie perked up immediately, and let them in a chorus of, "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!"

The drizzle outside stopped just then, and the sun peeked over the horizon, casting its warm light into a golden rainbow that reflected off the departing drizzle. Twilight noticed that Celestia hadn't seemed to use her magic to raise the sun, but she stepped out of the shelter they were hiding in to have a look at the dawning sky and the rainbow. The rainbow was very faint, but it was there. Celestia walked up, stood over Twilight, and looked at the rainbow, and sighed happily. "It's been a long time," she said.

Twilight suddenly felt confused. "A long time since what?"

Celestia's face grew red for a moment, then she turned around and used her horn magic to shine light on the inside of their shelter, and she illuminated a tombstone with the words, "STARSWIRL THE BEARDED" engraved on it.

Twilight gasped as she realized that their shelter was the tomb of one of the greatest unicorn wizards ever to have lived. A reverent silence fell over her; she felt like she was standing on sacred ground.

"It's been a long time since I visited his grave," Celestia answered. "He was my mentor, almost like a father to me after..." Celestia's sentence trailed off. She walked slowly up to the tombstone and lay down in front of it, as if to speak with it. "Hi again, Starswirl," she said. "I've been ruling Equestria for a thousand years. Luna is finally back-we forgave each other, and now she's helping me rule, again. We're both very happy. Oh!" Celestia beckoned Twilight, and Twilight slowly walked up to Celestia's side. "This is my prize student, Twilight Sparkle. She's got the most powerful magic I've ever seen in all thousand years. And she's got five _very_ close friends. They're studying the magic of friendship, the magical powers of good that you theorized about. All your theories are coming true in these six-it's one of the most beautiful sights I've seen in all my years. The magic is so powerful, it's saved Equestria a few times. It'll save it again, too, just you wait and see." Celestia looked at Twilight and then back at the tomb. "I'm _very_ proud of her."

Twilight was flattered and very glad that Celestia was proud of her and her friends. She stepped forward to the tombstone and said, "Wow...Starswirl...I've read _all _your books! I know how much all ponykind owes you-"

"Twilight, don't be silly, he can't hear you!" Celestia chuckled.

Twilight was a bit shocked. Celestia had been speaking as if he could hear her, or as if some part of her believed he could. Now she acts like he can't? "...Can he hear _you_?"

"Of course not!" she giggled.

Twilight was lost in thought for a moment, then something in her head clicked. "So...being silly is just a Princess's prerogative?"

"Ex-actly!" Celestia beamed. She added with a smile, "You've got to remember your place, young lady!"

Twilight giggled and rushed towards the Princess for a hug. She knew the Princess liked being casual, affectionate and even sometimes downright silly rather than stuffy and formal, and she was just cleverly adding silliness to silliness. And from what Twilight had read of Starswirl's personality, he probably wouldn't feel insulted at all that this was happening in his tomb; he might even find it heartwarming.

"Oh, I wish we could do this more often...just lie around and play and have fun!" the Princess happily moaned.

A strange noise at the tomb's entrance interrupted their hug, and Celestia saw that the radar spell had returned. She stepped up to it, looked it over, and frowned sadly.

"What is it, Princess?" Twilight asked.

"You're not going to like it. The closest reading...came from the direction of Ponyville."

Twilight's heart sank, and she could practically feel the hearts of all her friends sink, too. They had hoped their friends and family back in Ponyville were safe, that the corruption would no longer touch their parents, their brothers and sisters, their employers, their other friends and neighbors-their homes. But the corruption didn't give them a break: it was back.

Then something clicked in Twilight's mind to add to her sorrow: "Princess...I just remembered one other thing that was bothering me from before. It's...ooo, how do I say this...? Every time something happens to make us feel better-a little victory, a friend who gets uncorrupted, or we think of a solution to a problem-something else that's _terrible_ happens, and we feel worse again...I feel like I'm on a roller-coaster, and I'm scared that this emotional roller-coaster...just _won't stop_!"

After a sad silence, Applejack spoke up: "Twilight...just listen. I'm worried about Apple Bloom 'n' Big Mack 'n' Granny Smith-we've all got folks back home we're worried about. An'...an' I was hopin' they were safe, an' that all the worryin' for them was behind us, an' I'm disappointed that it ain't, an' I think we're all feeling the same.

"But buck up, everypony! We've beaten the corruption twice already; we can beat it again! We can make them safe again, so don't worry about it! Worryin' won't help anypony."

Pinkie chimed in, "Applejack's right! We don't have to be sad, anymore! Why can't we be happy? We can do this!"

Twilight nodded. "All right. Let's go out there and beat back the corruption, and show it who it's messing with!"

Celestia smiled and switched back to her spirit form. "I can tell, the fate of Equestria is in good hooves."

Twilight smiled back. "Rainbow Dash, you can get us there the fastest."

Rainbow Dash took point and flew as fast as she could toward Ponyville.

"I should warn you all about something else," Celestia said as they were flying back up the path Zecora had shown them.

"Uh-oh," Rarity thought aloud.

"The corruption-or whatever is behind it-_might_ be building some kind of tower."

"What makes you say that?" Rainbow asked.

"Because the signal that came back to me...didn't quite come from ground level."

Rainbow Dash swallowed hard.

Author's Notes:

You can tell things are starting to heat up, plot-wise!

I have to say that the dragon-boss was a little anticlimactic-at least the way I've written it here. If I made it a boss in a game, I'd probably make the battle a little more elaborate. Dragons are a classic video game boss, from Super Mario to World of Warcraft, and having one as the final boss of Everfree Forest seems particularly fitting-and awesome, I daresay. And complicating the matter by making it a non-corruption-based boss is also a unique twist.

I also have to say that the mechanics of the Manticore fight were unique, and I thought of them on-the-fly as I was writing them rather than considering them in advance. Having a boss that you damage simply by _standing next to it_ is something I've never seen before. The hard part is getting things to the point where you can stand next to it safely, and maybe it's a little too straightforward exactly how you get to that point, the way I've written it here. If the player didn't know beforehand how it's supposed to work, then the player might have to use a lot of trial and error, but once the player figures it out, it's bordering on trivial. This next idea might be too difficult for a kiddie game, but maybe the fight should involve different attacks being randomly required at different times, and it wouldn't be easy to predict which comes when, but there would be cues showing which is needed, like the boss tottering when it's time to use a tornado, or flailing when it's time to use the lasso, etc. ...Actually, all that might be too difficult for a game aimed at single-digit-aged girls; maybe it should be a much simpler fight. Heck, maybe _all_ the boss fights need to be made simpler. Or else, maybe the mane six themselves need to give the player suggestions as the fight progresses about how to beat the boss, like when to use the crystal prisons, when to have Fluttershy stand next to him, when to use the lasso, etc.?

That reminds me: I've not done nearly enough with Applejack's lasso in this story, so far. For a while, I was considering taking it out altogether, since I've been using it so little-Applejack's ground-pound-earthquake attack could've brought Rarity's platforms down in the fight with her instead of the lasso. But now I'm beginning to think I should keep it; if I do keep it, then I could have an effect like Applejack lassos an enemy, yanks the rope, then that makes the enemy smack the ground and get stunned for a few seconds. That would mean that EVERY pony has a ranged attack: Twilight has the Arrows of Light, Fluttershy has her animals, Applejack has her lasso, Rarity has her gems, Pinkie has her cannon, and Rainbow has her tornadoes. That's actually a pretty good arrangement, now that I think about it, though another thought I've had is that maybe in a game adaptation, the mane six should be able to fire cutie-mark-shaped magic bullets out of their EoH necklaces/tiara like they did during the final battle with DisQord, and those would have the same effect as Twilight's arrows do in this narrative. Another thought: maybe Applejack shouldn't kick or have the earthquake attack at all; maybe it should just be the lasso...? I could see that working; I've not used her kicks much, besides to separate Mr. and Mrs. Cake, and to get past Trixie's forcefields. I could see her lasso doing the same things...it's all just a thought. I'd actually prefer to keep the kick/earthquake, since it shows how strong Applejack really is, and cements her as having the "mighty" part of the "Mighty Glacier" role down pat.

Applejack was always one of my favorites, right from the first episode. Probably it's because she makes the most sense to me: she's on a farm, where a horse belongs (okay-_out in the country _where a horse belongs), but one of the big things that makes me like her is the fact that her job as part-owner of a farm is pretty obvious. You see, in a lot of children's stories, the question of where the characters get their food or money from is often left unanswered. The question actually has an answer in Friendship is Magic, with the possible exceptions of Fluttershy and Twilight (though she probably gets an allowance or stipend from Celestia, since she's doing a lot of research and other services for the state-or maybe just gets paid for being the librarian?).

I'm a bit worried about my style of writing in this chapter-in fact, in the first two chapters, it seems like I'm using stream-of-consciousness a little too much. The second chapter is practically about the thoughts that are going through Twilight's head while she's on this adventure. It does do a good job of showing just how badly Satallion's words have gotten under her skin, though. And some of it is decent enough, like how she thinks about overcoming bosses, but...I dunno; I think I'm overusing stream-of-consciousness. I think I'll try and use it a little less and lean a little more in the direction of an objective writing style. I'm thinking it'll still be around in the next chapter, just not as much. That's easily arranged, since Twilight's angst is pretty much over with.

I'm also worried that things are becoming too touchy-feely-especially when I go into detail about the physical contact between ponies. I hope that the touchy-feely part where Celestia was being silly with Twilight wasn't too much; I hoped that I had enough cleverness mixed in with it to keep it from being overly saccharine. ...Mixing in cleverness to keep it from being saccharine...that may just be the whole strategy with FiM, now that I think about it... I'm also worried that this is turning into a complete hurt/comfort fic. I guess hurt/comfort doesn't necessarily mean "terrible", but hurt/comfort isn't what I set out to do when I started writing this fic.

That also reminds me of one of the anxieties that Pinkie brought up-and I can tell from how she reacted in the "Baby Cakes" episode that it's actually one of her deepest insecurities: she's basically an adult with the mind of a child. And quite a few people of my generation are the same way-well, not _quite_ the same as Pinkie, but I think you understand what I'm trying to say. I mean, look at us fawning over a TV show aimed at single-digit-aged girls! Yes, it's an excellent show with good comedy, astoundingly good characters, a great fantasy universe that really sparks the imagination (this fic and any games it spawns being cases in point), but still! My generation loves video games, animation, and those kinds of things which have historically been kid's stuff. It kind of brings into question whether we've really grown up.

But then again, FOX News notwithstanding, we have jobs (those of us who aren't unlucky), and we can be responsible, successful, and happy in life. A lot of us are pretty skilled at what we do, be it art, music, or whatever it is we make our ponysonas' cutie marks look like-the point being that we can and do make contributions to our society and civilization. So why worry about our hobbies being childish? And, like Celestia pointed out, the question of what an adult human is supposed to be has a different answer in each generation-why shouldn't our generation's answer to that question drift in this direction?

On a different note, I'm a little bit surprised that I had _Rainbow Dash_, of all ponies, start to _cry_. My thought was that her alignment with loyalty was clashing heavily with the fact that she was cruelly saying things to Twilight specifically to try to make her feel as mixed-up and terrible as possible. and because of that clashing, Dash just broke down-that, and the fact that Dash just can't tolerate bullies, and she herself had become one against her will. To one of her closest friends, no less. Plus, she had been worried the whole time during Chapter 2 that what she had said was getting to Twilight, and when her worries finally proved justified, she just couldn't hold it in, anymore. ...I'm _hoping _that doesn't feel or sound like it's an insufficient explanation.

And I'm hoping that I didn't give too much "screentime" to Twilight's obsessive anxieties; I didn't want to choke the reader as much as Twilight was being choked, or else this would become unreadable. I myself can relate to obsessiveness; I have OCD myself, or at least I used to-I'm not entirely sure how to describe what it's like to have OCD. I've heard it described as "It's like there's an enemy inside your head that says to you, 'if you don't do what I tell you, I will get you'," and it was said about a teenaged boy who was doing exercises (e.g. sit-ups) and not stopping, even while screaming in pain, because he was compelled to do the exercises by his OCD. That _sometimes_ describes it, but a better way of putting it is that you get thoughts in your head that keep coming back to you precisely because you don't want them to. The less you want them, the more likely it is that they'll come back at you-though it is possible to forget them, and, indeed, that's the best way of getting around them. If that sounds like unholy torment to you guys, then I should tell you that it _can_ be. Actually, one symptom that has stayed with me is that, when I'm in a stranger's house, and I find I like this stranger, my first impulse (albeit not ever a strong impulse) is to tear their house apart. ...Don't look at me like that! I've never once in my life _acted_ on this impulse; the impulse always seemed unnatural, weird, and a little disturbing to me-except for the fact that the impulse told me that I liked the stranger. I get that impulse precisely because I don't want to get it. Anyhow, It's pretty clear to me that Twilight and Rarity both have OCD tendencies (though _probably_ nothing like that tear-their-house-apart impulse), and I figured I could bring my experiences with my own OCD in to bear on what Twilight was experiencing. I hope it did more good than harm for the story.

Back to the gameplay: yes, it was Odyssey Eurobeat's Evil Enchantress remix _and _Pinkie's own lyrics that inspired that fight with Zecora. I'd actually LOVE to have Odyssey Eurobeat's Evil Enchantress music as the background for the fight. And since Pinkie is always breaking the fourth wall, I think it'd be perfect if, while the "Evil Enchantress" theme is playing, Pinkie herself begins to sing along with it in perfect rhythm (which is why I had her start singing it during the battle)! That would be such a slick way of tying into the show's existing characterization of Pinkie!

Also about Zecora, those of you who were thinking while reading the Chapter 1 author's notes: "Hey, the B key is right next to the character-switching keys; gimme BIG MACK!" are probably smiling and thoughtfully nodding as you take note that "Z" is right there on your keyboards, too. I could see Zecora as a playable character; in fact, I could see her as a kind of a replacement for Pinkie-if her cauldron and gas clouds were her attack, she'd actually have an attack functionally very similar to Pinkie's, in that it's a temporary AoE stun with a long cooldown-at least, the cooldown would be long in comparison to Twilight's arrows. Don't misunderstand me; I don't mean that Pinkie would necessarily cease to be playable if you picked up Zecora; I'm just saying Zecora's stats and gameplay would be similar to Pinkie's. Whether she'd have a "Zebra Sense" to correspond to Pinkie's Pinkie Sense or not is another question entirely; she might not.

Also, that moment where they're trying to decide whether to go with Zecora or not reminds me: a great way (but by no means the only way) to have a branching plotline would be to have little choices like this decide which missions you take on and which you don't. I could see three options: escort Zecora back to Ponyville, don't escort her at all (which is what happens in this story), or outright take her with you as a permanent playable character. Believe me, choices like this could have a lot more consequences than you'd think, and actually that's a lesson I could teach players: that even small choices can have big consequences.

Another lesson I'm_ considering_ adding was one of the endings-the most boring ending would also be the best ending. To give you some idea of how boring it is (and it's not much of a spoiler, really), the mane six go out into the middle of nowhere to fight the final boss, win, but are exhausted and basically need to wait for Luna to come pick them up so they can be taken back to the palace to get cleaned up and rest and recover. Nothing else really happens, and I'm sure you'll agree with me that that is _a_ good ending: the boss is gone, they won, Equestria is saved, and they can go back to the lives they lived before the corruption took hold. Having them victorious, but exhausted, is not the most interesting ending, but it's still a good one. Probably one that you'd like if you were one of the mane six. Making it the _best _ending the player can get teaches them the lesson that boring is sometimes good, surprisingly enough. That being said, I'm not sure I want to consider this the best ending; I have another ending in mind that, in some ways, is better than this ending. It's the ending I'm planning on writing into this story, so I won't spoil it.

I'm a bit surprised that I found myself glossing over half the Everfree Forest level by describing it while Twilight was in a half-sleeping state; actually, I thought it was a clever and sneaky move to mix in a cave maze into the forest level. (That's exactly what Pony Platforming Project III did, too, isn't it?) Again, from my author's notes from Chapter 1, remember what I said about different settings: in most video games, there's a green grass area, an underground area, an ice level, a forest level, a tropical level, a city level, a cloud level, a desert level, a lava level, etc. etc. Well, with the setup I have here, I'm mixing a forest level together with an underground level-if I wanted to make it a game, I might not need to have the Diamond Dog Underground as a level if I had the cave maze as part of the Everfree Forest level. That being said, I could easily have the DDU be a separate level while keeping the flow of this level intact-the DDU is more of a mine, and while mines and caves are both underground, let's face it: mines aren't caves. But I digress: what's great about the cave maze being in Everfree is that I'm mixing maze and exploration gameplay together with the megaman-esque run-and-gun gameplay. I thought it was a clever way to keep things interesting and to make sure I have plenty of settings variety. While I'm on the subject of mixing different levels together, I plan on mixing about three (maybe even four!) different types of settings in the next chapter, and you can probably guess what it is.

It's a bit spoiler-ish, but I hope you've picked up that Celestia has a few secrets of her own. She's a good pony at heart and wants what's best for her people, and she genuinely loves and cares about Twilight and her friends even more than _we _do. But she still has secrets. Just about every piece of fanon has her with some kind of dark secret, and this one also gives her some dark secrets-though they aren't as dark as some. I plan on revealing those secrets soon.

I wanted Twilight's angst to get resolved quickly-normally angst like hers only gets resolved just before the final battle so that the heroes will be strong enough to fight, ready to pay the price of victory, motivated to pound the villain into the dust. But here, her angst is over-with by the second chapter. Why so soon? Don't worry, I know what I'm doing.

And, yes, I didn't stop with bringing in Immanuel Kant and Sigmund Freud; I brought Hegel in, too. I remember C.S. Lewis called his philosophy the propaganda of the devil, and I remember hearing his ideas in my History of Philosophy at college and distrusting them-but other than that, I don't recall much about him or his philosophy. In any case, I _do_ remember that he commented on Kant, so I figured I should bring him into it. And yes, I was looking at wikipedia's glossary of equestrian terms (this is the real-life use of the word "equestrian", i.e. "of or pertaining to horses") to figure out what to call Hegel, and Hobble just seemed to fit a little too well. (ha.) I'm expecting to draw the line here with philosopher references-I can't think of a good equine equivalent for Kierkegaard. Or DesCartes. ...Oh: De Carts. Horse-drawn cart. Hehehehe...

...You know what? No. _Bad_ idea; forget it.

There's more to discuss about the gameplay; I've brought an Extra Lives system into the mix, and even given a story-logical reason for the extra lives. In games like Sonic or Super Mario, there's no explanation for why the plumber who just fell into the lava and burned to death reappears at the start of the level, unburned and fine. In this game, there _is_ an explanation, and the characters themselves are fully aware that they just died and reappeared somewhere else. In fact, I could probably have a built-in hint system so that, when the player loses a life, the ponies themselves start discussing just how they lost that life, and what can be done to avoid it the next time. They might even lampshade how old it's getting if they keep dying on one particular boss, or talk about how scared they are if they're down to their last life. The question of _where _they show up when they die and why is still left open; if I was making it a game, I might create an explanation-probably it would be another really huge gem that would do it, so that Rarity's abilities can uncover new checkpoints-she's starting to become a very powerful character, now that I think about it, since she has full use of her telekinesis and on top of that is a healer with a very good freeze attack. I may need to tone her down a bit before she becomes completely OP. Then again, she lacks Pinkie's or Rainbow Dash's agility, Twilight's rapid-fire, Fluttershy's multi-projectile attack, and Applejack's health, so maybe she's not OP...hard telling.

Anyhow, I also added a story-logical reason why getting a lot of small gems nets you an extra life, too-I had in the back on my mind a system where the small gems were both a means of getting an extra life AND a form of ammo. They're a bit like coins in Mario or rings in Sonic, but they lean a little bit more in the direction of Star Bits from the Super Mario Galaxy games.

But there are problems with having the same type of item serve as both a 100-for-a-1-up and as ammo at the same time: first of all, if you have 99 gems, then when you get that last one and have 100 gems consumed and converted into a 1-up, then you suddenly have no ammo at all; that can be so fatal in some situations that you'd lose the 1-up you just gained, so you'd be better off not getting that 100th gem in the first place. That's a bad system that would punish you for "progressing", and isn't what I want. Secondly, let's say that getting to 100 gems gives you a 1-up, but doesn't actually consume the gems. You can throw a gem, go back down to 99, then get another gem, and you're back at 100-do you get a 1-up for this, or not? Obviously, if you could turn every gem into a 1-up just by being cleverly trigger-happy, the system would be overpowered and cheap.

There's probably more than one solution for this; I think that the Super Mario Galaxy solution is that getting 50 star bits gets you a 1-up without consuming the star bits you've collected, but once you get the 1-up for getting to 50 star bits, you can't get another 1-up by getting your star bit count to 50 again. If you want another 1-up, you need to get your star bit count up to 100. That system works perfectly for a game as logically divided into levels as Super Mario Galaxy, where your star bit count gets zeroed out at the end of each level when you collect a star. But for the single, continuous plot of The Devil's Stallion, that solution probably wouldn't work-there's never an event that zeroes out your gems.

In principle, I could create events that zero out your gems, but I think a better solution is this: when your gem count hits 150, then 100 of your gems are consumed, and you get an extra life. You still have 50 gems left to use as ammunition after that, and it's still an exchange rate of 100 gems per 1-up. Of course, this is subject to change-I could easily see Rarity having infinite ammo, and not even having small gems as a collectible item; a system like that would work just as well as the 150-gems-to-1-up solution-maybe even better. It's waaaay too soon to tell.

This reminds me: I'd like it if the game kept track of what color gems Rarity collects, and then uses a first-in-first-out system so that, if Rarity collects a green gem, then a blue gem, and then a red gem, then throws out three crystal prisons, then the first crystal prison she throws will be red, the second blue, and the third green. It would add a splash of color to the game (always something to think about for kiddy games), and add a little variety.


	3. Chapter 3: At Times the World Saves You

Chapter 3:

As they sped closer and closer to Ponyville, the sun seemed to suddenly plunge beneath the horizon.

"What just happened?" Twilight asked. "Did...Luna do that?"

Celestia answered, "We don't control the rising or the setting of the sun or moon in Everfree Forest, Twilight-everything works differently in Equestria from how it works in Everfree."

This made no sense to Twilight. "But...when we used the Elements of Harmony to free Luna and destroy Nightmare Moon, the sun came up just as you arrived!"

"That was a happy coincidence; that was the sun rising naturally in Everfree."

Twilight decided not to worry about it; they were coming up on Ponyville fast, and whatever was threatening their home needed to be dealt with. As soon as they were out in the open, they looked around. There wasn't a tower anywhere to be seen, but there was a dark cloud slowly creeping closer-an unusually shaped cloud, at that. Then it dawned on them what that cloud was.

"Cloudsdale? But...I thought it never moved!" Twilight asked.

"If the corruption core attached to Cloudsdale is somehow manipulating the wind currents, then Cloudsdale could be moved," Celestia thought aloud.

"But what are they trying to accomplish by moving the whole town to Ponyville?"

"Hold on a moment-you need to be close to a core for the corruption to affect you, right?" Rarity pointed out.

It clicked in everyone's mind. Applejack said it first: "They're tryin' to re-corrupt Ponyville using Cloudsdale's core! They're tryin' to kill two birds with one stone!"

"We've gotta stop that core _before_ it gets to Ponyville!" Twilight declared with determination.

Lightning crackled beneath Cloudsdale, and as if in reverberation, lightning sparked from the clouds hovering above Cloudsdale, as well. It was hard to see in the darkness of night, but thanks to the illumination from those lightning bolts, it was clear that it was absolutely _gushing _down rain on and around Cloudsdale.

"Oh, wonderful: this is going to be one of _those_ kinds of adventures," Rarity moaned.

"Look at it _pour_!" Pinkie shouted, then gasped. "Pouring rain means..._RAIN GRAPES_!" Pinkie's motor-mouth then switched to turbo mode: "Rain grapes are the most delicious things I've ever tasted that didn't come out of an oven and they're even better than a lot of things that DO come out of an oven and I've been working at Sugarcube Corner for years so I'd know and I still think rain grapes are the best but they only grow when it's raining really really hard and they go bad right away after you pick them so you gotta bite them right off the vine and eat them and even though you get soaking wet it's worth it because they're so good and we're all down in the dumps and we've gotta get wet anyway to save Cloudsdale so why don't we cheer ourselves up by getting some RAIN GRAPES!? ..._PLEEEEASE_?"

There was awkward silence for a moment. Pinkie herself broke it: "On second thought, maybe we should keep our priorities straight and stay focused."

That only generated another awkward silence, since Pinkie saying something mature was not typical of her. But Rarity broke this silence: "Listen...I know that keeping my mane dry is not as important as saving Equestria, but...could we make a..._quick _pit stop by my boutique and pick up some...rainwear?" After a brief pause, she added, "I have more than enough for everypony!"

Rainbow Dash's orb rolled in the air-the closest a spirit could get to rolling her eyes when she didn't have eyes to roll. "Rarity, when _Pinkie _is more concerned about keeping our priorities straight than you are, there's a problem."

"I think this time, we _should _bundle up first," Twilight said. "I'll explain on the way. Get us to Rarity's as fast as you can." Dash reluctantly began zooming toward Carousel Boutique.

Twilight continued, "There's two parts to the reason why I think we need raincoats for this. The first is because of a special property of water called 'specific heat'-I mentioned it earlier when it was drizzling in the forest. Basically, every substance in the universe has a 'specific heat': the amount of thermal energy it takes to increase its temperature. Water has a very high specific heat, which means it takes a lot more energy to heat up water than it does to heat up anything else, like wood or iron or rocks."

"Ooo, sciency!" Pinkie Pie said. There was a brief pause in the conversation, during which Twilight weighed the likelihood of Pinkie actually understanding what she was saying. Just as Twilight was coming to the conclusion that Pinkie couldn't possibly have understood a word of it, as if on cue, Pinkie asked, "What's all that mean?"

"Twi, not all of us have as much of an education as you," Applejack pointed out. "Could you please say it in English?"

"It all means that water really sucks all the warmth out of you. So if we get wet, it'll be impossible to stay warm, especially if the core catches on to what we're doing and makes Cloudsdale move _up_.

"That's the second part of why I think we should do this; this corruption is pulling some _very_ dirty tricks against us. It's already tried messing with our heads, and it somehow knows exactly what to say to get to us. So I wouldn't put it beneath the corruption cores to try to make us fall over from hypothermia by first soaking us with rain, and then moving Cloudsdale higher in the sky to freeze us. Remember what Rainbow Dash told us about going higher up?"

"The higher you go, the colder it gets?" Rainbow Dash remembered aloud.

"Exactly. So if we get raincoats to keep ourselves dry, the corruption's plan to make us fall over from hypothermia won't work!"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Fine. If you guys _really _think it's a good idea, then you go right ahead and get your raincoats. As for me-"

"You should really bundle up, too," Twilight interrupted.

Rainbow stuck her tongue out in disgust. "_Maybe _if I was obsessed about how I look. _Maybe _if I was a filly toddler playing in puddles with a _rubber ducky_. But I'm not either of those things, here: I'd _rather_ get wet! I'd never hear the end of it from the rest of the Ponyville weather team if I was seen in a raincoat! If you can't handle a little rain, you've got no business being a weatherpony! Besides, if being dry is really that important, I can spin myself dry in _five seconds flat_!"

"This isn't a _little _rain," Twilight insisted. "It's a complete downpour, probably magically enhanced, that's covering the whole town, and we don't know how long we'll be in it. And spinning yourself dry will only make you colder! It won't work in the middle of a downpour, anyway."

Rainbow Dash facehoofed. "Okay...fine. There's _way_ too much at stake; I won't argue with you at a time like this. But I _know_ I'm going to regret this...! And _please _don't tell anypony I'm doing this!"

They entered Rarity's boutique, and to their surprise, Rarity's parents and Sweetie Belle were inside! Rarity switched out into physical form and rushed toward her family, tearfully happy to see them.

"Rarity! What happened? Why weren't you at home?" her mother asked. "Where've you been all this time?"

"Oh, Mother, Father, Sweetie Belle! I'm so glad to see you all!"

"Rarity, what in Equestria is going on?" her father insisted.

"Oh, Popsicle, it's such a long story, I-I don't even know where to begin!"

"What're these weird bubbles following you around?" Sweetie Belle asked, bouncing Pinkie's spirit orb on the ground like a rubber ball. ...Which Pinkie seemed to be enjoying.

"These-are my friends!" Her family looked at her as if she were crazy. "No, really, this is Twilight, Applejack," Rarity pointed with her hoof as she was saying their names, "Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie! And-" Rarity added a gasping inhale for extra drama: "-the _Princess_!"

Rarity's parents looked at each other in bewilderment at first, then they immediately bowed down in reverence as they heard Celestia say, "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance!"

"Rarity, we need to make this fast!" Twilight insisted. "You'll have to explain everything to them _while _we're getting bundled up." Twilight switched out into physical form and started walking towards the back of Rarity's shop, where raingear was kept. Rarity began explaining about the Spell of Unity, the cores, the corruption, and the Princess's plan to use the Elements of Harmony to destroy the cores. But to Rarity's surprise, Twilight turned away from the raincoats and starting looking around at sweaters the moment she saw where the raincoats were. She picked out a very large sweater and began putting it on.

Rarity stopped her explanations mid-sentence and shouted, "Twilight, what are you _doing_?! That sweater was fitted for stallions, not mares! It'll look _hideous_ on you!"

Twilight shook her head. "I'm choosing this one because it's the biggest and fluffiest I could find.

"And you want that so it'll keep you all warm and cozy, right?" Pinkie asked.

"There's more to it than that; it's also for padding: I'm worried it might start _hailing_."

Rainbow Dash chuckled. "Figures an egghead bookworm like you would know about that, Twilight!"

"What in Equestria are you talking about?" Rarity asked, chuckling a little. "You're talking about 'hailing' as if it were some kind of weather! It's something you do for _royalty_!"

Suddenly, Celestia roared "_THAT'S NOT FUNNY!_" so loudly, the whole town might've heard it.

Everypony froze, shocked and frightened that Celestia had been angered. A terrifying silence held all of them in its grip, and Sweetie Belle was the first to break it: she got down on her knees and sputtered, "P-please don't be mad at my sister, Princess! She didn't mean it!"

Twilight swallowed and added, "I don't think Rarity had _any _idea what she was saying, Princess..."

Rarity began stammering: "Wha-what did I say? What did I do?"

Twilight slowly moved to the raincoat rack and began explaining, "Hail is...small pieces of ice that fall out of clouds. It forms when clouds get big enough updrafts in them that are strong enough to suck raindrops up into the higher parts of the atmosphere. If those raindrops get high enough, they freeze, and then they fall back down."

"Isn't that called...sleet?" Fluttershy asked.

"Not quite," Rainbow Dash explained. "With hail, those little balls of ice can fall down, get wet when they hit more raindrops inside the cloud, then get sucked back up again, and then the water freezes on the outside. That puts an extra layer of ice on them. Then they can fall again and get sucked up again, and that adds _another _layer, and so on and so on, until they finally get too heavy for the clouds to suck them up again. They can get a _lot_ bigger than sleet. Sometimes the size of golf balls."

"Wouldn't that...hurt?" Applejack asked. "An' damage buildin's and crops an' stuff?"

"_Yes, it would_," Rainbow Dash answered, "And that's _exactly _why they keep yelling at you to make sure your clouds don't have updrafts when you're a weatherpony! It gets _old_."

Rarity whimpered, "I'm sorry, Princess, I had no idea-you're right, it's _not_ funny at all!"

Celestia seemed a little sheepish, herself. "I...I'm sorry, too, Rarity. I should've known you didn't know what you were saying...and I...I was overreacting, in any case."

Rainbow Dash happily pointed out, "I guess the fact that nopony-besides a weatherpony, a 1000-year-old Princess who's seen it all, or a bookworm-even _knows _what hail _is_ proves that us pegasi have been doing our jobs since..." She trailed off, not knowing when pegasi first began managing the weather. "...Since _forever_, I guess."

Celestia's orb moved down in shame.

After a pause, Rainbow Dash added, "Now that I think about it, I kind of find it hard to believe any pegasus would _actually_ make it hail. I mean, we're all trained to _not_ make hail. Why would anyone in Cloudsdale start now? ...Unless..."

Twilight finished the thought: "Unless the corruption _made _them do it. And _nothing_ is too low for the corruption."

Rainbow growled. "You're _right_, Twilight: the more you think about the corruption, the worse it gets! It's _not_ just you!"

"I don't know whether to feel better or worse that it's not just me," Twilight thought aloud as she finished putting on raingear. For good measure, she also borrowed boots and a waterproof saddlebag, and she put some ink, parchments, and quills in it. "Okay, everypony-just like I did: make sure you have a sweater on, and make sure there's no way rainwater can get in to get your sweater wet. Better grab a saddlebag, too-you never know when they'll be handy."

As Rarity continued to explain the situation to her family, the mane six bundled up, one by one. Rarity made a point of taking her saddle-umbrella, too.

As Rainbow Dash came out from behind the dressing screen and began looking for flight goggles, she asked, "Okay, guys...lay it on me, how bad do I look?"

"Not bad at all-trust me," Twilight insisted. "But it's kind of hard to recognize you when you're all covered up like that; the only thing that I can recognize is your eyes."

Rainbow Dash immediately grabbed a pair of tinted goggles.

"_Rainbow Dash_!" Twilight scolded. "It's still nighttime, and we're flying into a _storm_! You need to be able to _see_!"

Rainbow Dash sighed and got a more practical pair of goggles.

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Rainbow Dash answered dryly. Then added, "Seriously-don't mention it to ANYPONY!" She turned to Rarity's family, and added, "And please-don't tell anypony that I'm the one wearing this!"

"Moonlighting as a superhero again, eh, Dashie?" Rarity's father asked.

"Uhhhhhh... _YES_!" Rainbow Dash awkwardly answered.

"Oh, brother," Twilight muttered, trying to count the number of different ways Rarity's father was wrong about his guess.

"Ah, don't worry: your secret's safe wit' us!"

Applejack was the last to finish, and after she did, she knelt down in front of Sweeite Belle and wrapped her in a filly-sized raincoat, too. "Please...go to Sweet Apple Acres an' tell Apple Bloom 'n' Big Mackintosh 'n' Granny Smith what's going on. Tell 'em I'm all right, 'n' that I'm working with my friends on the Princess's plan to save Equestria!"

Sweetie Belle nodded. "Don't worry! I'll tell them!"

Applejack added, "An' be careful; if corrupted ponies start showing up in town, you 'n' your parents 'n' my family go 'n' hide in my apple cellar-I reinforced the door and added a lock after...well, after Twilight fell through it by accident. It should hold, and you won't run out of food down there."

Sweetie Belle nodded again.

Rarity switched out into physical form one last time to say goodbye to her family. As she did, Twilight silently thought to herself that Rarity was lucky she could see her family. If anything happened to her during this adventure, Twilight would like one last chance to say goodbye to her loved ones, too. She hoped Spike was okay, but knew that they couldn't delay for her to go back to the Library and see.

Rarity gasped and interrupted Twilight's thoughts: "Princess, we completely forgot about getting _you _a raincoat! I...I'm not sure I have anything in your size...!" She looked at a roll of waterproofed fabric. "Ohh, if only I'd thought to heat the iron up when we first came in, I'd be able to make you a quick rain cape in _two minutes_!"

"I-I'll stay in spirit form," Celestia answered. "But now that I think about it-is there any other way to stop this besides going into-" After a pause, Celestia said, "...No, no there isn't. ...We need to get moving."

Just as Rarity opened the door of the boutique, she saw Derpy Hooves coming towards her, also dressed in raingear, and carrying a mop in her hooves. "Uh...Derpy!" Rarity shouted, a little embarrassed at having trapped her for hours on end.

Derpy seemed to feel equally awkward. "Uh...hi, there, Rarity...it's, uh..."

"It's..._been_ a while," Rarity finished.

"Yeah, and thanks for putting that commode there, earlier..._but_...uh..."

Rarity gulped; she could tell it was bad news. "But...what?"

"I..._missed_."

Rarity looked like she was about to go into hysterics. "I...I'll have to hire a cleaning crew!"

"Uh...about that...it was kind of my fault, and while I'd like to pay for a cleaning crew...I...can't. But...I have a mop, so-"

"NO!" Rarity shrieked. "You'll burn Carousel Boutique to the ground!"

"Rarity, how is that even possible?" Twilight asked.

"This is _Derpy _we're talking about!" Twilight thought for a moment about what Rarity was saying, and then realized that Derpy had a knack for causing improbable amounts of collateral damage by accident, and then she began to realize that Derpy would actually be a danger to the wellbeing of Rarity's business if she went inside again without supervision. Maybe even with supervision.

Rarity turned back to Derpy. "Derpy, I know you mean well, and that you're trying to make your mistake right, but I _forbid_ you to enter my store to clean the mess up!" Rarity turned her nose up into the air, closed her eyes, and insisted, "_I_ shall cover the expense of _my own _cleaning!"

Derpy suddenly became very depressed, and turned around, head drooping. "Okay," she slowly said, walking away. "I understand..."

It was a depressing to see her so depressed; Pinkie couldn't bear it. "Rarity! How could you?!" she hissed.

Rarity opened her eyes and looked at Derpy, and then saw how sad she was. She knew it was one of Derpy's longstanding anxieties that she'd be rejected because she was so clumsy, and the only way everyone had managed to keep smiles on their faces was to pretend that it wasn't a problem and never reject her for it. But...Rarity had crossed that line.

She didn't want to be the jerk, so she thought fast and trotted up behind Derpy. "Besides, it's not exactly _your_ fault in the first place. After all, who was the one who froze you in a crystal prison? _And_ who was the one who placed the commode?"

Derpy perked up immediately and said, "You mean it!?"

Rarity smiled back. "I certainly do!" Then she realized Derpy might take that as an invitation to clean the mess up, and added, "That's why I'm hiring a cleaning crew and _not _holding you responsible in any way, shape, or form."

"_Better_," Pinkie stated.

"I think we've dawdled for a little too long," Twilight said. "We need to get to Cloudsdale!"

"C-can I come?" Derpy asked.

"Sorry," Twilight answered. "There's no room in the Spell of Unity, and...no time to explain what that means.

"O-okay," Derpy slowly said, and turned around to head home.

Rainbow Dash popped out and flew as fast as she could up toward Cloudsdale. The town wasn't moving very quickly, but it was definitely and ominously moving closer and closer to Ponyville.

As they got near the cloud city, the rain began-huge, icy drops gradually began falling out of the sky, and to Twilight's surprise, she could _feel_ them splattering against her spirit orb. It wasn't a pleasant feeling at all. And the closer they got, the more drops there were-she didn't want to think about how awful the weather would be once they got into Cloudsdale proper, but she also knew that she didn't need to think about it: they were about to be in it.

Rainbow Dash muttered, "I hope nopony sees me wearing this..."

Twilight noted, "Visibility is actually pretty low; I don't think you need to worry..."

The downpour became incredibly thick as Rainbow Dash lighted on a cloud on the outskirts of Cloudsdale. As she set her hooves down on the cloud, the cloud squished like a wet sponge under her boots. She looked around and couldn't see anything. "Where exactly is the core?"

Twilight looked around for the Princess's orb, and it was nowhere to be seen. "Princess?" she asked. There was no answer. The Princess wouldn't have left them! She _couldn't_ have left them, even if she'd wanted to-the Spell of Unity would've made it impossible! Twilight began looking around, and noticed a faint pastel rainbow glow on the cloud beneath them. Twilight moved her spirit orb so she could see whether the Princess was hiding under Dash's body, and sure enough, there she was. "Hey, that's a great idea! Everypony, we can take shelter under whichever pony is in physical form!" As she joined the princess under the shelter of Rainbow Dash's slicker, Twilight thought how it was no wonder Celestia couldn't hear her while she was down there, between how Rainbow's clothes were absorbing the sound and how loud the rain was.

They all quickly floated under Rainbow's chest, and Rarity added, "It's certainly better than being rained on! Good thinking, Princess!"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, though it was hardly visible under her goggles. "Guys, _where is the core_?!"

The Princess spoke up: "Where is the center of Cloudsdale?"

"That's the town square!" Rainbow Dash shouted over the storm. "That way!"

"Then try there. It's the most logical place to put a core, since its effective radius would encompass the most volume, that way."

"Hold on a minute," Twilight thought aloud, "Pinkie, I think you should take point."

"Why's that?" Pinkie asked.

"Because the visibility is really low; only your Pinkie Sense will be able to tell us if any corrupted pegasi are approaching."

"Okie-dokie-loki!" Pinkie answered, and switched out. She bounded toward the center of town.

She suddenly stopped. "Pinchy knee, guys!" she shouted.

"Corrupted ponies?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I dunno, but it _really_ hurts! Whatever it is, it's gonna be-" A nearby bolt of lightning interrupted Pinkie, and the thunder from it sounded more like a nearby _explosion _than anything else they'd ever heard. It was deafening, and their ears rung for a few moments.

As they regained their senses, they realized that Pinkie was hugging their spirit orbs like teddy bears. Her eyes were wide as saucers, her pupils small as peas, and she was shaking.

"It's just thunder, Pinkie," Applejack pointed out dryly. (Not that anything besides her tone was dry.)

"Could that lightning actually..._hurt_ us?" Fluttershy asked Rainbow Dash.

"The corruption can't use the lightning for an attack; trust me," Rainbow answered. "There isn't a way to make lightning go where you want it to go. Believe me, we pegasi have tried."

Twilight thought of something: "But...what if the corruption's magic gets mixed into it all...?"

"..._Is_ there a spell that can make lightning go where you want it?" Rainbow asked.

"I'm not sure, but I do know that lightning is attracted to positive ionic charges on the ground, and there are spells that can give something a positive ionic charge-"

"English, Twilight, _English!_" Rainbow Dash reminded her.

"There might be spells that can attract the lightning to given target, but there's no telling whether the corruption will think to try it or not."

"If that happens, our only line of defense is the sunstones," Rarity thought aloud. "I'd better try and find as many as I can!" Rarity switched out with Pinkie and began working her gem-finding magic on the sodden clouds beneath their feet.

"Wait-Rarity, what're you DOING?" Rainbow Dash asked. "We're in the _clouds_! You can't expect to find-" her sentence was cut off as she saw a small, clear crystal get tugged up out of the cloud beneath them by Rarity's magic.

"Wait, what is this?" Rarity asked aloud. She looked the crystal over; it was completely clear, and dripping wet. "An..._ice _crystal? ...Oh, _what_ was I thinking?! I doubt this'll help at all!"

Twilight tried to recall the details of the spell. "Maybe it will; Princess, what did the scroll say about the Spell of Unity and gems?"

The Princess was silent for longer than they'd expected. She must have been having a hard time remembering; and it was no wonder: with the rain as loud as it was, it was hard for Twilight to hear herself think. Finally, Celestia she answered, "It didn't say 'gems'; it said 'crystals'."

"So maybe ice crystals will be just as good as gems," Twilight thought aloud. "Try finding a heart crystal, or else-"

Twilight's stream of consciousness was interrupted as a corrupted pegasus flew straight at Rarity. Rarity reflexively hurled the ice crystal at the pegasus, and the ice grew into a crystal prison, just like the gems had done on the ground.

After a tense pause, Twilight sighed. "I guess that answers our questions for us...but Pinkie should take point again, so she'll be able to see this kind of thing coming."

"Okie-dokie-loki!" Pinkie said again, and switched out with Rarity. But as soon as she switched out, she gasped. "There's more coming! LOTS more!"

Twilight switched out and got ready to fire a barrage of arrows of light. "Fluttershy, we might need you to distract them. Get ready to-" Twilight's jaw dropped as she saw a surprisingly large army of pegasi flying at them. She'd forgotten how huge these armies could get to be; she hadn't had to deal with them in Everfree Forest, since there weren't any ponies there.

She pushed these thoughts aside and began firing as many arrows as she could, focusing on the stragglers to try and distract them, just like in Ponyville. Again, the whole flock began chasing after the uncorrupted ones, but it never took them long to catch up to and re-corrupt the uncorrupted ones, so they just kept coming at her.

Twilight kept firing and kept alert, never letting them get near her or her friends. But she began to wonder why it was so much easier to distract the whole herd in Ponyville-then it dawned on her that she'd only had to worry about two dimensions of combat in Ponyville, and she was now dealing with three dimensions. There were more directions for her enemies to come at each other and her from.

It suddenly dawned on Twilight that some pegasi could easily dive-bomb her from above, so she decided to begin randomly jumping left and right, forward and backward, just in case. The first time she randomly jumped like this, she left her friends and the Princess, who had all been sheltering under belly her up until then, exposed to the downpour. The Princess yelped and swished back under the shelter of Twilight's underside. "_Please _don't do that!" Celestia pleaded.

Twilight's first impulse was to explain her worries about dive-bombing to Celestia, but she had to focus on the fight. She kept firing, and to her surprise, a lot of pegasi suddenly were no longer flying-they simply ran at her across the tops of the clouds. This made the battle simpler, and Twilight found that they didn't move as quickly as the ponies in Ponyville moved. She kept firing and firing, and before long, it became apparent that the number of corrupted ponies in the crowd was going down drastically-unlike in Ponyville, where her main survival strategy was to let the army stay corrupted and just keep them away from herself, here, she was actually able to cure _all_ of them.

After a little while, Twilight could no longer see anypony struggling, anypony charging, or anypony fleeing. There were no longer any corrupted pegasi-only confused, drenched, freezing, terrified pegasi.

Twilight realized how lucky she was to have a thick raincoat and an even thicker sweater between herself and this storm; the poor citizens of Cloudsdale were shaking uncontrollably, while she was almost _cozy _beneath all her layers. The feel of a downpour beating down on her back and shoulders and head wasn't a pleasant feeling, but she was still glad to be warm and dry.

As a handful of the stallions trotted up beside some of the hunched mares, and the stallions put their wings over the mares' heads to try to keep them a little warmer, Twilight winced inside. Seeing other ponies suffering like that felt _terrible_, especially since she was more fortunate than they were. She looked at Rainbow Dash's orb. "Is there _anything _we can do to help them?"

Rainbow seemingly looked around, and saw a cloud that wasn't gushing down rain. "That cloud over there looks like it can be used for shelter," she said.

Twilight waited for Rainbow Dash to switch out with her, but she didn't. "Rainbow Dash, why aren't you flying over there to get it for them?"

Dash hissed back, "_Because I don't want to be SEEN wearing a raincoat_! And thanks for saying my name out loud for them to _hear_, by the way!"

Twilight answered firmly, but quietly enough so the pegasi wouldn't hear it over the storm, "What's more important to you: your image, or the citizens of Cloudsdale?"

After a pause, Rainbow Dash sadly switched out, flew over to the dry cloud, gripped it between her hooves, and beat her wings to move the cloud through the sky and over the freed pegasi-and over the pegasus who was still stuck in Rarity's crystal prison, too. She switched back in and let Pinkie Pie take point again, but as they were moving closer to the center of town, one of the pegasi shouted after her, "Thanks, Rainbow Dash!" She groaned in response.

Twilight took a moment to reflect on the battle. She had been worried she might get attacked from above-but that never happened. Why not? Anypony in their right mind would see that as a clear opportunity and-then it dawned on Twilight that the same rules as before applied: you can't be corrupted and intelligent at the same time. Those pegasi were too stupid to think of dive-bombing her. She also noted that the corruption didn't just prevent a pony from learning; it also prevented creativity.

She also regretted putting Celestia in a position where she was getting rained on; it must be even worse for her than it was for the six of them. Even while she wasn't in bodily form, Twilight felt a little warmer-somehow, their sweaters and raincoats were helping them, even in spirit form. That meant that the poor Princess wasn't getting that help; she wasn't wearing anything to keep her dry _or _warm! ...At least she could get some shelter by hiding under whichever pony was in physical form.

Then Twilight began wondering why the pegasi had suddenly become unable or unwilling to fly in the middle of the battle, and she decided to ask about it: "Say, Rainbow Dash-"

"What _now_?"

"Listen...I'm sorry I bugged you into wearing a rainsuit and then into showing yourself, but...but it was the right thing to do! ...And...well...I wanted to ask you something."

"_What?_" Rainbow groaned.

Twilight decided to let Dash's attitude slide. "...Why do you think those pegasi stopped flying in the middle of the battle?"

"Simple: they got too wet to fly."

"But we've seen you and Fluttershy flying just a few seconds after you two fell into water! You were able to take off and save Rarity and Spike from falling to their deaths when Spike grew ten stories high and was dragging her up the mountain. And you took off right away after falling into the _river_! How much wetter than _that_ can you get?"

"It's not just about how wet you get; it's also about how long you _stay_ wet. The longer you're wet, the more the water can soak into your wings. And if enough of it soaks in, your feathers don't work, and you can't fly, anymore. Fluttershy and I got out of the river right away, so the water never got a chance to soak in. But in this rain-"

"In this rain, they can't get dry at all, so after a minute or so..."

"They're grounded."

Suddenly, another thought dawned on Twilight: "That's _perfect!_ I just realized that a pegasus who can't fly is no good to anypony in Cloudsdale, so if those pegasi we left behind get re-corrupted, it won't do the corruption any good!"

"Wait," Applejack thought aloud, "If the corruption knows that the rain is gonna make its own troops no good, then why would it even bother makin' this storm in the first place?"

"_To get to us_," Twilight answered. "Remember the soak-and-freeze trick I mentioned before? The corruption wants to try that on us. It makes perfect sense; I mean, we're the only real threat to the corruption in the long run, and it's got a lot of pegasi troops to spare, up here. The way things are, I think we can expect them to jump out of every building as we go-they'd stay inside until it was time to attack. We're gonna need your Pinkie-sense more than ever, once we get into town."

"You can count on me!" Pinkie answered.

They had to fight through a few more flocks of pegasi before they made it into town, but the closer to the center of town they got, the heavier the downpour became. Twilight was partly awed and partly horrified that it could actually rain harder than it had been raining before. They made a point of sheltering under awnings and stray dry clouds as much as they could as they made their way through the storm.

Rarity thought aloud, "If we get the chance, you should let me switch out and gather as many crystals as I can-even if it is ice and not gems."

"It's probably a good idea," Twilight agreed.

Rarity switched out and shuddered at the ferocity of the storm. As she began searching the clouds for whatever ice crystals she could, she said, "When I asked to take a pit stop at my boutique, I was worried you'd say no, and we'd all have to be out here in this storm, unprotected! _Thank _you letting me take my raincoat for this!"

"Thank _you _for letting _us _take _your _raincoats for this!" Pinkie answered.

Rarity searched for ice for a few minutes and found some crystals, but it wasn't long before she had to switch with Twilight so she could cure some attacking pegasi. After switching out to fight, Twilight noted to herself that it was raining so hard, and it was so cold, that it might actually _hurt_ them to be out in this storm if they weren't bundled up. She also noticed that the wind was switching directions unpredictably, pelting first her left side, then her right side, then her face, then her tail, then her back again. She debated for a moment whether to say it out loud, but if the corruption was to blame for this wind, she decided she's better off saying it than not saying it: "It's almost like this storm is probing us for weaknesses!" Twilight shouted, not sure if her friends would hear.

"Well, it won't _find_ any!" Rarity declared. "Oh, I'm certainly glad I heat-sealed all the seams!"

As the battles finished, Twilight watched the uncorrupted pegasi in town trying to get to shelter, hiding in doorways or rushing back to their houses, going into any building they could. Twilight hoped that there were dry towels, warm blankets, and hot baths for these poor, freezing, soaked ponies waiting for them in their homes.

The events seemed to all blur together as the seven of them trudged through the deluge, searching for the core-until suddenly, the world around them seemed to get whiter, and it was impossible to see more than a few feet in front of them. Twilight realized that, without them noticing it, the temperature had gotten closer and closer to freezing, and now, the rain had turned to snow.

"Brr!" Applejack exclaimed. "You called it, Twi!"

"Wait...does this mean that the corrupted pegasi...will be able to fly again?" Fluttershy asked.

"Probably," Rainbow answered. "Snow melts slowly enough to not soak in."

Twilight gulped. "This is really dangerous, guys!" Lightning began flashing more frequently, and with every flash, she could see more pegasi coming at them. She fired her arrows as best she could: left, right, above and below. But she wasn't able to do this alone; she needed Applejack to switch out now and then to lasso a high-flier or to take some hits she wasn't strong enough to take. She needed Fluttershy to switch out and send falcons out to distract some of the larger swarms. She needed Rainbow Dash to help her zip away from attacking enemies quickly, and to disrupt formations of flying attackers with her tornadoes. She needed Rarity to switch out and heal her and her friends whenever there was a lull in the battle. She needed Pinkie to switch out and use her Pinkie-sense to see exactly where the corrupted pegasi were, and every now and again use her party cannon on them. How the fly strips could work when they were this cold and wet was a mystery to Twilight, but she tried to concentrate on the battle.

The pegasi kept coming and coming, and Twilight's arrows kept sending them back. Twilight began to wonder if the whole thing was a revolving door of pegasi that were being uncorrupted by her, re-corrupted by something else just out of sight, and then sent back to fight her-but she never could recognize the same pegasus enemy twice, even though she was trying.

Every time she turned around or jumped to avoid a charge, Twilight noticed that the clouds she was standing on were no longer squishing under her boots: they were crunching and crackling. The rainwater had frozen, and if she weren't wearing boots with good grip, she realized she'd probably slip and fall off the ice-slick clouds to the ground below.

For several minutes, this battle went on, and then the pegasi quit coming. A lone figure came towards them, barely visible through the whiteout, and then it made a motion with its front legs, as if to part the snowstorm like a curtain-and the snowstorm DID come apart like a curtain! And through the now-clear air, Twilight could see their attacker: Gilda, the same griffon that had bullied Pinkie and Fluttershy. And, naturally, she was corrupted.

Twilight noticed that the corruption made her eyes glow purple, just the same as Trixie's eyes did. Did that mean the core was nearby?! She hoped the answer was "yes"; she wanted to destroy that core and get out of this storm as quickly as possible. But before that could happen, she could tell that she needed to get past Gilda.

Gilda landed and began hurling blasts of magic at them, much the same as the ones Trixie had. Rainbow Dash switched out to dodge those, and it quickly became obvious to Gilda that magic projectiles weren't working. So she flapped her wings and sent tornadoes out at Rainbow. She tried to fight back with her own tornadoes, and she had to work hard, but she managed to send the tornado back at Gilda and send her into a dizzying spin. That gave Twilight an opening, and she began hitting Gilda with arrows.

Twilight didn't manage to get many hits off before Gilda began firing magic at her again, and she had to switch out with Rainbow Dash again. Gilda again beat her wings and sent a tornado at Rainbow Dash, but when Rainbow Dash sent the tornado back in her face, she merely gripped the cloud beneath her and wasn't stunned or even knocked away by the tornado. "What?!" Rainbow Dash said out loud. "She _learned_?!"

Gilda snickered. "Long time no see, Rainbow Dash! ...Or should I say, _Raincoat_ _Crash_!?"

For a moment, Rainbow Dash was about to complain that the secret was out: she was a weatherpony in a slicker! But she stopped herself, remembering her promise (her Pinkie-promise, no less!) to her friends not to let anything the corruption does get to her. She stared Gilda down and shouted, "All right, corruption: you listen, and you listen _good_! We've figured out by now that you're trying to get under our skins. Well, it's _not _gonna work! You can keep trying to get to us and keep failing, or you can give up. And it doesn't matter which; the result is gonna be the same!"

Gilda only responded by sneering and hurling more magic at Rainbow. She still couldn't land a hit, but Rainbow couldn't do anything to fight back.

"This isn't working," Twilight thought aloud. "Rarity...?!"

Rarity popped out and hurled ice at Gilda. Gilda tried to bat it away, but that only locked her talon in a crystal prison. While she was trying to free herself, Twilight began blasting her with arrows, and Twilight could tell the corruption's hold on Gilda was thinning.

Twilight knew that Gilda would learn to dodge Rarity's gems from here on, so as Gilda was just barely freeing her arm from the ice, Twilight shouted, "Pinkie! Party Cannon!"

Pinkie switched out, drew her cannon, and covered Gilda with fly strips. Gilda struggled to free herself, and while she was struggling, Twilight switched out and finished the fight, removing the last of the corruption.

"Rarity, help Gilda with that fly paper," Twilight said.

"I...can get it...my-SELF!" Gilda insisted, ripping the fly paper off. She eyed Twilight. "What're _you_ doing here?" she asked with contempt.

"We're looking for this magic corruption core-it looks like a swirling purple cloud. Have you seen anything like that?"

Gilda's eyes narrowed. "And what're you gonna _do_ with that core, exactly?"

"Destroy it and free Cloudsdale, of course!"

Gilda seemed to get angrier for a moment, then sneered. "Well, well, well...aren't _you_ the hero!"

Twilight frowned. "Gilda, this is serious! _Where is that core?!_"

Gilda seemed to ignore her. "Little goody-four-shoes ponies out to save Cloudsdale!? _Ha_! Like _that's _going to happen."

"We saved _you_, didn't we?" Rainbow Dash snapped. "You were under dark magic against your will, and _we cured you_."

"No I wasn't," Gilda taunted back.

"What're you talking about?" Twilight asked, getting very suspicious. The more this conversation dragged on, the less Twilight liked it. "You were using that magic to fight us. It's not like you have magic of your own!"

Gilda grinned knowingly. "You nailed the 'dark magic' part. The part you got wrong was where you said 'against my will'."

Twilight's face went pale with a combination of horror and righteous rage: the thought that someone would _welcome_ a world run by hatred was simultaneously terrifying and enraging. And Gilda was _helping the corruption_!

Gilda began flying away swiftly into the snowy air.

"Applejack, lasso her!" Twilight shouted. She thought, _if we can catch her and __**force **__her to talk, we can learn where the core is from her!_ But by the time Applejack threw her lasso, Gilda was already out of reach.

"Horseapples!" Applejack snorted. "I cain't believe she'd betray us like that!"

Celestia cut in, "If my royal guards _ever _get their hooves on her, I'll _personally _see to it she gets brought to justice!"

Twilight tried to clear her head of the fury that was filling it. "Guys...we still need to find that core and destroy it! And we don't have time to search every building near the town square, either. Princess, can you send out your radar spell again?"

Celestia's orb swayed side to side; she was shaking her head. "It's not safe to send out the radar spell here; we need to find someplace more defensible to send it out from."

"Okay...Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, you two grew up in this town; can you guys think of a place safe enough for us to wait there while the spell comes back?"

After a moment, Fluttershy thought aloud, "Maybe...the summer flight camp training grounds?"

"They're pretty close," Rainbow Dash agreed, "And there should be some buildings with thick walls we can use for cover."

Fluttershy's orb moved down. Twilight thought to herself that that was usually a sign of a negative emotion, so she asked, "Is something wrong, Fluttershy?"

"I...don't have very fun memories of that place," she whimpered.

"Aw, don't worry about it! Nopony's gonna laugh at you!" Rainbow Dash assured her.

"You're sure?"

"Oh, yeah. I don't think corrupted ponies even _can_ laugh! But even if they can, I'm sure they'll be _way_ too focused on making us into dog food and glue to even _think _about something like _laughing_!"

"Okay...that makes me feel a lot better; thanks."

Twilight rolled her eyes: Fluttershy's tone hadn't been sarcastic at all. She probably meant every word completely. Twilight thought to herself how mortal peril sometimes didn't scare ponies as much as social situations, and remembered how she once read somewhere that most ponies were less afraid of death than of speaking in public.

Twilight had to push those thoughts aside as more pegasi swept down on them. She switched out and began firing arrows to try to thin them out, and shouted over the battle, "Which way to we go?!"

"THAT way!" Rainbow shouted.

"WHICH way, is THAT way!?" Twilight shouted back, still firing.

"Ohhhh...Fluttershy, use your birds, and then let me lead the way!"

Fluttershy switched out, and tried to run away until enough falcons were circling her so that she'd be able to distract the whole herd. It worked, and then Rainbow Dash switched out and began racing through the air as fast as she could to the training grounds.

As they were flying, the snow became thicker and thicker again, and it became heavier and wetter as well. It was as if the storm were deliberately keeping the air around them at exactly the freezing point of ice to make the melting snow leech as much heat away from them as possible. Before long, it was raining _slush_.

Rainbow Dash ignored the weather, and landed outside a medium-sized building that looked like it would be defensible. "This is the mess hall; it has the thickest walls in the whole campground," Dash said aloud.

"This'll work, but...how do we get in?" Twilight thought aloud.

A door in a building beside them burst open, and a horde of corrupted fillies and colts poured out of one of the buildings and charged them.

"_Foals_?!" Rainbow Dash growled. "The corruption is sending _foals_ after us?!"

Twilight steeled herself for battle. "Pinkie, party cannon!" she shouted.

Pinkie was able to immobilize a huge number of the little ponies, and Twilight began uncorrupting the stuck ones. The remaining fillies and colts began to try to corrupt the stuck ones again, but that just distracted them and left them open to Twilight uncorrupting them.

The strategy was pretty effective, but there was always an un-stuck straggler or two that Twilight had to shoot before she could focus on the whole group. But every straggler she cured scampered behind her to try to hide from his or her corrupted friends, so the battle got easier and easier as time went on. After several minutes, all of them were uncorrupted.

But just because they were uncorrupted didn't mean all was well; the little fillies and colts were still exposed to the elements, confused, terrified, and shivering. One of the littlest fillies in the back started sobbing loudly: it was clear they were suffering. A _lot_.

Fluttershy switched out, trotted over to the sobbing filly, and spread her raincoated wing over her to keep the storm from touching her. "We can't just leave these little ones here in this awful storm!" Fluttershy moaned. "We have to help them!"

"Let's get them inside," Twilight thought aloud. "But...how do we get the door open?"

Rainbow Dash tried to think. "The doors are locked from the inside, but I remember they had crashbars that would open even when the doors were locked."

"Let's hope they still work that way...ohhh...if I could _just _use my telekinesis without breaking up the Spell of Unity, I could pull that crashbar from out here! ...Rarity, I think this one's all you."

Rarity switched out, shifted herself so that her body was sheltering the sobbing filly, and tried her magic on the door. "I think I've got it," Rarity thought aloud. And in a moment, the door opened.

Fluttershy popped back out, used her wings to scoop up the filly and press her against her belly as she trotted inside, ushering the other fillies and colts in, as well.

They shut the door behind them just as the slush turned back into a freezing downpour. Rarity used her magic to light the fireplace, and they let the little ones huddle around the fire to try to get warm. The sight of them, exhausted, confused, too terrified to speak, and every now and again looking up at them for some reassurance, was a heartbreaking sight. Twilight knew they had done the right thing by bringing them under a roof and in front of a fire, but still... "I wish there was something more we could _do _for them," Twilight moaned.

"Like what?" Pinkie asked.

"Well...is there an emergency station where there are blankets or towels or something?" Twilight asked.

"There might be some blankets in the laundry," Rainbow Dash thought aloud. "Maybe the Princess can send out the radar here, then we can go get the blankets, and then we'll get back before the radar does?"

The Princess didn't switch out. After a few seconds she said, "I'm sorry, but that won't work. There's too much interference from the lightning."

"Oh...why didn't you say so earlier?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I hadn't thought of it," Celestia answered.

Twilight tried to think. "Then...what if we went higher up in the clouds?" Twilight asked.

"That may work," Celestia agreed.

"Okay...we'd better get moving, so we can-"

"_Waaaaaaaaait!_" Fluttershy shouted. "We can't just _leave _these fillies and colts here like this!"

They looked back at the crowd of child ponies. Every one of the children had their big, watery eyes on Rarity and the glowing spirits around her. None of the little ones understood what was going on; they didn't know about the corruption cores, they didn't know about the Spell of Unity, they didn't know that Equestria's fate hung in the balance. They certainly didn't understand the mind-control magic that had been on them, or why there were no grown-up ponies to care for them. All they knew was that they were afraid, cold, and wet.

Twilight knew that a delay could be deadly, that the corruption spread exponentially, and that Cloudsdale was probably over Ponyville by now. There could be more corrupted pegasi from Ponyville joining the pegasi from Cloudsdale at any moment. And if they were smart enough to wear wing-protecting raincoats like the ones Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were wearing, then they'd be able to fly in the storm, and they would be a much bigger threat than the pegasi had been so far. Either way, time was not on their side at all.

But at the same time-what were they fighting for? They were defending the ability to care for others, and if she turned her back on these _children_...wouldn't she be turning her back on the very thing she was defending? Twilight finally said, "We _can't _be heartless about this, guys. Fluttershy's right. Even though it'll take up a lot of precious time, we've just _got_ to get those blankets."

Fluttershy switched out and asked the crowd before she left, "Now, does anypony know how to make hot cocoa?"

One filly, bigger than the others, raised her hoof. "I do, I do!"

"Okay. Go into the kitchen, and try to make enough for everypony. We'll be back in a few minutes with blankets to get you all warm and cozy!"

They carefully shut the door to the mess hall behind them and raced toward the laundry as fast as they could, but it wasn't long before corrupted ponies were upon them. Twilight recognized a few of them as ponies from Ponyville, and just as she had feared, they had all brought raingear with them. Most of them had saddle-umbrellas; a few had raincoats. And at the front of them, leading the charge, was (of all ponies) Derpy!

They fought past them as best they could, but try as she might, Twilight couldn't uncorrupt all of them. They just didn't slow down; they never got too wet to fly. If only there was a way to get those saddle-umbrellas off...! A good gust of wind would do it, but there _was_ no wind! That clinched it in Twilight's mind; she was convinced that some intelligence on the side of the corruption was _definitely _controlling this storm, but she couldn't ponder that in the middle of a battle. If only her and her friends could control the storm, even just a little, to get an edge in battle!

Then Twilight suddenly remembered that they DID have a weather-controller with them: Rainbow Dash herself! "Quick, use your tornadoes on the ponies with umbrellas!"

"Ohhhh...! I hope they don't recognize me!" Rainbow Dash moaned softly: these were the very ponies that she wanted to _not_ know she was wearing a raincoat! But there was no other way around this; she switched out, showed herself, and blasted the umbrellas off their backs with wind.

Twilight switched back out and kept firing. Grounding those pegasi gave Twilight the edge she needed, and she was able to uncorrupt them all. The uncorrupted Ponyville pegasi scrambled to get their umbrellas back, and Twilight winced inside at the thought that she and her friends were now the reason they were soaked and freezing. But she resolved not to let it get to her: the corruption was the _real_ reason all this was happening, not _her_!

It dawned on Twilight that these were all adults, and they needed some adults to take care of the children in the mess hall, so this was actually a good thing. She shouted, "Everypony, head to the mess hall! It's over there," she pointed, "And we can all take shelter there. There are colts and fillies there, too, and we need adults to watch over them. I'm with the Princess, and we have a plan to save Equestria from the dark magic, but there's no time to explain it!"

The crowd moved to the mess hall-everyone except Derpy; she stayed and said to Twilight, "Sorry about attacking you-I just don't _know _what went _wrong_!"

Twilight gulped awkwardly. "Uh...don't worry about it, Derpy, just go with the others and wait for us to come open the door." She turned around to get to the laundry (and away from the awkward conversation) as quickly as possible, but Derpy asked, "Where ya guys goin'?"

"We're...going to the laundry to get some blankets and towels for the children in the mess hall. They got pretty wet and cold, so...yeah. We need to get moving," she said, as much to herself as to Derpy.

"Oh, I'll come help!" Derpy shouted, flapping beside her.

"That's not necessar-"

Derpy cut Twilight off. "I was here at summer flight camp for a looooong time before they let me graduate; I know this place _really _well. I can show you how to get to the laundry! Come on!"

"Wait, we already know where the...!" Twilight's sentence trailed off as Derpy flew ahead of them to the laundry, and the thick downpour blocked her from sight. "Ohhh...I hope this ends well!" Twilight shouted as she trotted after Derpy.

When they finally caught up to her, she was stacking up crates to one side of the laundry. The crates weren't quite up against the building; they were a yard or two away from the wall.

"Derpy-what're you _doing_?" Twilight asked.

"Well, the laundry's locked, so I figured we'd have to check the roof for a way in. And you're not a pegasus, so you can't fly up."

"...And...?"

"And so I'm stacking up these crates to make steps so you can get to the roof!"

Twilight stared at Derpy for a moment, then decided ignoring her would be the least awkward thing she could do. She whispered to her spirit-form friends, "Guys, we need to find a way in...Rainbow Dash, is there a crashbar on these doors like there is at the mess hall?"

"I don't think there is; this door uses a lever-knob. And it won't turn from either side if it's locked."

"Great...Rarity, you wouldn't happen to know any unlocking magic, would you?"

"Sorry; _fashion _is my specialty. Magic...well, that's really _your _thing, I'm afraid."

"Maybe we should break a window to get in?" Applejack offered.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Break a window? _Really_? I'm surprised you'd even suggest something like that, Applejack! You have the Element of _Honesty_! Shouldn't we respect other ponies' property?"

"Well, yeah, but, this is important-I mean, it comes pretty near to bein' a life-or-death kinda thing!" Applejack pointed out. "I just can't stop thinking about what it would be like if my Apple Bloom was one of them little fillies shivering back at the mess hall! If she was one of them, then if she doesn't get warm an' dry real soon, she'd come down with a cold, or-or _pneumonia _or somethin'! And the _last _thing we need is sick little ponies in a mess like this! You gotta do whatever it takes to make sure things like that don't happen, Twi."

"I'd really rather not cause collateral damage if we don't have to, but...well...you're right. Let's keep the breaking-a-window idea in the back of our minds as a last resort. Maybe we can-"

A clamor of falling crates and breaking glass interrupted Twilight. It was clear Derpy had saved them the trouble of breaking in.

"My bad!" they heard Derpy say.

Twilight sighed heavily. "Let's just get in and get the blankets and towels before anything else happens!"

Rainbow Dash switched out and flew in the window. As she was flying in, Derpy said, "Hey, nice raincoat, Rainbow Dash! Where'd you get it?"

She facehoofed. "_Please _don't tell anypony about this!" Rainbow Dash begged.

"O-okay," Derpy said.

"Just...go back to the mess hall and wait for us there!" Rainbow insisted.

"Okay, see ya there!"

"That's what I'm _afraid _of!" Rainbow moaned under her breath.

Twilight switched back out and looked around. She saw that there were several shelves full of clean, dry blankets and towels. She noticed that there were also several raincoats hanging on a peg-raincoats that no corrupted ponies had even _tried _to take. She began to wonder whether this was because they were too stupid to try, and whether the small army of pegasi that Derpy had led was just pegasi from Ponyville who had happened to have already prepared themselves for the weather at the time they became corrupted, but she knew she couldn't dwell on that at the moment; she had to get those blankets and towels to the poor ponies in the mess hall.

She opened her saddlebag and shoved as many blankets and towels in as she could, then closed her bag-or rather, she let the top flap fall over the blankets that were bulging out; her bags were so full, they wouldn't snap shut. "Everypony else, fill up your saddlebags. We need to get as many as we can!" One by one, they switched out and filled their saddlebags to overflowing, and then they all raced back to the mess hall. The adults were trying to find a way in, since the door was still locked. The fact that they hadn't found a way in was a relief to Twilight: it meant that corrupted pegasi wouldn't be able to find a way in, either.

Rarity switched out and opened the door again, letting the whole crowd inside. One by one, the six of them switched out and dumped the blankets and towels onto a table. Rainbow Dash did hers silently, hoping nopony would recognize her beneath her layers.

"You guys sure got a lot of blankets and towels!" Derpy said, apparently looking at the pile (you could never quite tell what she was looking at).

Rainbow Dash didn't answer; she didn't want a whole crowd of Ponyville pegasi to hear her voice and realize that she was wearing a raincoat.

Derpy stared at Rainbow Dash, waiting for an answer. "Why aren't you talking to me?" she asked. Rainbow Dash froze. She just kept thinking, _don't say my name! Don't say my name!_

Derpy got a sad, concerned, guilty look on her face. She asked, "You're not still _mad _at me, are you...Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow Dash facehoofed and stood still for a moment. Then finally, she cried, "That's _it_! I'm a _laughingstock_! Every pony in Ponyville's gonna know that a weatherpony like me was seen in a raincoat! My life is _over_!"

"What're you talking about?" Derpy asked.

Rainbow Dash answered, "A pegasus has no business being a weatherpony if she can't handle a little rain, and now...you _all _know I'm wearing this! I put it on because Twilight said something..._science_-y about why getting wet is bad, and...and I didn't argue, but I knew I'd regret it..." Rainbow sobbed lightly. "...And I was _right_!" Rainbow Dash buried her face in her hooves, and couldn't say anything more.

Another pegasus in a raincoat stepped up to Rainbow Dash and put a hoof on her shoulder. When she looked up, the pegasus took her hood down. Under the hood, surprisingly, was another member of Rainbow Dash's weather team.

Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped. "Wha-Raindrops?! But...but I thought you _liked_ the rain!"

"Sure I do, but I couldn't fly or do anything to help in a super-downpour like this unless I was wearing a raincoat to keep my wings dry. That's why I put it on in the first place back in Ponyville. We saw the super-storm coming, and we knew there wasn't a storm scheduled for today, so we bundled up and got ready to try to take it apart to keep Ponyville safe. But then pegasi from Cloudsdale flew at us, grabbed us, and...well, that's when the dark magic took control and made us come and attack you. So...yeah, the whole Ponyville weather team is wearing raincoats, right now."

Rainbow Dash looked at the other pegasi as they were taking their hoods and rainhats off to help the children towel off, and she realized that the very pegasi that they had uncorrupted moments ago _were _the Ponyville weather team! Rainbow had been so focused on the fight, and so afraid of being recognized, that she herself had failed to recognize her own co-workers!

Rainbow Dash was dumbstruck. "Y-you mean I've been worrying about getting embarrassed for _nothing _this whole time?"

"I...guess so," Raindrops answered, sheepishly. Rainbow Dash didn't quite know what she should be feeling at this point, so Raindrops asked, "So, uh, Chief...what in Equestria is going on, here? What was that dark magic that made us get mad and attack you? And how did Twilight and the others disappear and make you appear?"

"There's _way _too much to explain, and there's no time," Rainbow Dash answered. "All I can tell you is that it's all part of the Princess's plan to deal with the dark magic, and I'm working on it with Twilight and the others. For now, you and the rest of the weather team sit tight here and take care of these children until this crisis is over."

"Will do, Chief!"

As Raindrops walked away, Rainbow Dash mopped her brow and mouthed, "Whew!"

Fluttershy suddenly noticed that none of the children had hot cocoa. They had been gone long enough to make it, so she asked, "Why doesn't anypony have hot cocoa?"

The children looked over at the door to the kitchen, and they saw a filly's face peek around the corner. Her face was covered in powdered cocoa mix so that it looked exactly like she had a brown beard. There was a wistful look on her face, and she admitted, "I..._don't _know how to make hot cocoa..."

The whole crowd laughed at the sight of her, but Fluttershy snapped, "Stop laughing at her!" The room went quiet in an instant.

Fluttershy switched out and trotted into the kitchen to see what had happened. The cocoa machine hadn't even been switched on, there was powdered cocoa mix all over the floor, and there was a puddle of warm water on the floor, too. Fluttershy glared at the sheepish filly, then pulled a dish towel off the counter and began rubbing her face clean. "This kitchen looks like a filly who _doesn't _know how to make hot cocoa has been in here!"

The filly solemnly looked at Fluttershy, hoping for mercy.

"Why did you lie to us?" Fluttershy demanded.

After a pause, the filly admitted, "I...just wanted to be grown-up, a-and do something important like you! ...I just wanted to _help_!"

"You _can't _help if you don't know what you're doing! If you don't know what you're doing, you'll just make things worse!" Fluttershy began her lecture. "What if you had burned your little nose on the hot cocoa machine's roasting-hot metal?! You could've gotten hurt with nopony to help you!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Fluttershy's tone grew a little softer, but she was still firm. "Okay, I forgive you, but you need to understand that the worst part about this was that you told us you could make hot cocoa when you really couldn't: You _lied_. It's a terrible thing to tell a lie, especially when we're in a life-or-death situation like this one. So many things can go wrong when you give someone the wrong idea about what's going on: you're putting yourself and your friends in danger when you lie! Do you understand?"

The filly nodded.

"Okay. Now go get a blanket, try to get warm, and think about what you've done. Then come back here with a grown-up to help you, clean up your mess, and make hot cocoa the _right _way." The filly nodded and began to trot out of the kitchen. Fluttershy stopped her for a moment, drew her back close, and whispered, "And make _sure _the grown-up you get _isn't_ the gray, cross-eyed one." The filly nodded, and raced out of the kitchen.

As soon as she was out of earshot, they heard Celestia sob loudly.

"Princess...?!" Twilight asked.

"What you said about lying, just now, Fluttershy," Celesita sobbed. "You're right. I _am_ putting you all in danger."

"What're you talking about?"

"I've been hiding something from all of you...something I've hidden from everypony since I was a young mare..."

It was a terrifying thought that their Princess was crying-the thought that she was hiding something from them wasn't scary at all; she was in a position to legitimately know secrets better left unknown to the public. But that their beloved Princess was in distress made them all as silent with fear as the foals had been.

Finally, the Princess told her secret, and she was barely keeping herself from bursting into tears. "When...I was a filly, DisQord...made it _rain lemonade _on me... For two whole days and nights, I ran for shelter, but every time I found relief, DisQord would snatch it away from me. I had no rest, no respite, no food...for _two whole days_." At this point, the Princess was so distressed, she could only construct very simple sentences. "It...was cold. It was wet. It was filthy. It was _awful_. All he did was laugh, while I..._hurt_. ...I...fainted. Luna brought me back...but I became _very _ill. I almost...lost my life. Ever since, I have been _horribly _afraid of rain."

Twilight thought back to how, in Canterlot, the days when it rained were either the days when the Princess was away, or the days when the Princess was in the deepest parts of her castle, studying magic or law or teaching her and other prize students, so far deep in the castle that you would never know if it were night or day, raining or sunny outside. And wherever the Princess went, it was _always _bright, sunny weather for her visit. Twilight had always thought that was clever planning, but had _never_ suspected it was because the Princess had a phobia of rain.

Twilight thought of her own phobia of snakes, and how that easily compared to Celestia's phobia of the rain-then she remembered Fluttershy's fear of dragons, and Rainbow Dash's fear of other ponies touching her hooves. She realized that just about everypony she knew had some kind of strange quirk like that about them-then she realized that these quirks weren't something to be ashamed of, but something to simply accept.

Twilight switched out into physical form and took Celestia's trembling spirit orb between her hooves. "Princess...I'm _so sorry_. But...you don't have to be ashamed of your fear...it's okay; _all _of us have little weird things about us just like that. You don't have to hide it; you don't have to feel embarrassed!"

"There's...more, Twilight. _Much _more," Celestia added. "But...I...don't have the _strength _to say it!" Her tone made it sound like she had been thoroughly defeated, and was weeping on the inside.

"Then say no more," Twilight said softly. "Please...if there's _anything_ we can do to help..."

"I...I can't think of anything...anything at all," Celestia moaned. "I don't want to hold this mission up any more than I already have. I know that the best thing to do right now would be to send out the radar here, where it's safe, and where we're surrounded by friends and allies, then shelter here while we wait for its return, and then attack the core, but...I can't enter physical form. I'm _too scared_."

Twilight suddenly remembered how Pinkie had been unable to go into physical form back at Sugarcube Corner until Mr. and Mrs. Cake had forgiven her, and she remembered that it was because she had been too afraid and didn't _want _to enter physical form. She realized that the Princess must be under the same amount of stress that Pinkie had been under!

Pinkie interrupted Twilight's thoughts. "But...I don't get it; didn't you say the lightning would make the radar _not work_?" Pinkie asked.

"_That _was the lie I told you, Pinkie. I'm sorry."

Twilight was terrified of the thought that her beloved mentor and Princess was suffering this much, but she had to know whether it was true or not. She asked, "You're...really _that _scared of the rain? Even indoors, when you know you won't get wet-you're _that _scared?"

"..._Yes_, Twilight. I _am_...that...scared!"

Twilight felt horror well up in the pit of her stomach as she realized that it had been pouring rain the whole time, worse than she had ever seen it pour before, and that Celestia _had been out in it the whole time_: this whole time, she had been _suffering immeasurably_. And, almost as bad, _she had been holding it all in_.

It also hit Twilight that Celestia was the light and hope for all of Equestria, practically their goddess. And here she was, helpless, sobbing, terrified, so embarrassed that she was lying to her closest subjects, and now she felt so horribly guilty that her guilt had _overpowered_ her embarrassment and compelled her to confess-it was a _bone-chilling_ thought that their hope and stay had so many awful, _powerful_ emotions clashing in her heart!

And worst of all, they couldn't stay in the shelter of the mess hall: they needed to go right back out in the loud, gushing, soaking, _cold_, torrential rain-as soon as possible, at that-to _somehow_, _someway _find and destroy the core. Celestia was going to have to start suffering all over again. ..._**And **__she knew it_: the horror and terror she was feeling right at that moment, even indoors, must have been _incredible_! Twilight swallowed hard.

It felt like her thoughts were cramping up all over again: how can they find the core without the radar? ...What if they could get up higher than the rain clouds? Maybe then, Celestia would feel brave enough to enter physical form and send out the radar. And maybe _then_, they can find and destroy the core. But how can they _get_ that far without the Princess suffering again?! She'd been through so much already...! ...If only they had some warm, dry place where the Princess could hide that was blocked from the sound of the storm, so she didn't have to hear it or see it! It wouldn't even have to be a very _big _place; in spirit form, the Princess was the size of a rubber ball. She could easily fit in their saddle bags-_should_ she hide their saddle bags? ...They wouldn't be very warm, but what about their raincoat pockets? ...Not all their raincoats had pockets in the same place; if they switch out, and there wasn't a pocket for Celestia to hide in, then what would happen to Celestia? Would she be pressed to the newly-physical pony's fur inside the raincoat, or would she be thrust into the cold, wet, terrifying downpour? All these questions were making Twilight's head hurt-HER HEAD! _That was it_!

Twilight uncovered her head. "I have an idea, Princess. I think...I _hope _you'll suffer a lot less if you hide in my mane. It'll be warm and dry, and...I think it'll absorb a lot of the sound, so you won't have to hear the rain, either."

"_Thank _you, Twilight," Celestia said, and quickly moved her spirit orb into Twilight's mane.

"I think a new rule should be that whoever's in physical form gets the umbrella," Rarity thought aloud. "For that matter, you should switch with me, Twilight, so that we can test to make sure that the Princess will still be under my rainhat when we switch."

Twilight covered her head again and nodded. They switched, and the Princess was still under Rarity's hat. "All right, now...let's try _willing _the umbrella to stay in physical form when we switch, and see if that works."

Twilight switched back out, and sure enough, the umbrella was still in physical form, resting on her back and snugly strapped down.

"All right," Twilight said, trying to formulate a plan. "Let's get as high as we can; if we can get above the rain clouds, then the Princess can send the radar out from there. And Princess-we understand that you're suffering-a _lot_ _more_ than you can tell us. So if you need us to look for shelter to give you a few minutes to get yourself together, just say so. We'll hear you; you're pretty close to our ears."

"_No!_ We've already delayed too long, and...I've endured this long with worse accommodations than you're giving me now. You must press on to the tops of the clouds. And...everypony, I'm so _very, very_ sorry for lying to you, and...and for not telling you...not telling you everything...and for how much I've delayed-"

"Don't worry about all that, Princess!" Rainbow Dash insisted. "_I'm_ sorry I can't clear out the sky right here and now for you!"

Celestia became silent.

Twilight took that as a cue that the conversation was over, and she wanted to make this as quick as possible, so she went to the doors, opened them, and dashed out into the downpour without another word. It was far less uncomfortable now that she wasn't being rained on directly, but the downpour had become even thicker than it had been before, and Twilight felt the weight of the rain's impact on the saddle on her back. The horrifying thought that the corruption might somehow now _know _about Celestia's phobia occurred to Twilight. She decided firmly that she wasn't going to let the storm touch her beloved Princess, no matter how hard it tried; she'd do whatever it takes to keep her warm, dry, comfortable, and safe.

"Okay...Fluttershy, you take point. Your birds will help keep us safe, and if any of us sees any corrupted pegasi, then send your birds out to distract them, and Rainbow Dash will get us away from them fast!"

Fluttershy switched out, and ducks began to circle her to keep her safe. She began flying up, higher and higher. Few pegasi bothered them, and when they did, Fluttershy's birds or Rainbow Dash's tornadoes kept them at bay. And the higher they ascended, the less and less it poured.

Finally, they were above the clouds, and a starry sky smiled down on them-but somehow, it was still raining.

"How is this even possible?" Rainbow Dash wondered aloud.

"You're a weather pony, and _you_ don't know?" Twilight asked.

"_No_, I don't," Rainbow Dash moaned. Rainbow Dash looked over the side of the cloud, and saw that some bizarre wind current was drawing rain out from under the clouds, looping it back up, and then dumping it back onto the cloud. "I've never seen a wind current do _that _before!" Rainbow Dash thought aloud. "But...at least it's not pouring..."

"_Now _what do we do?" Applejack moaned.

Rainbow Dash spotted a cloud that wasn't pouring rain down, and flew towards it. She gripped it between her hooves and pushed against the air with her wings, propelling the cloud into place above the highest cloud to make a small shelter.

Twilight switched out. "All right, Princess, we've gone up as high as we can go. The rain hasn't stopped entirely, but it's a _lot_ lighter than it was, and we have a shelter set up. This is the best we can do; can you send out the radar from here?"

Celestia peeked out from the shelter of Twilight's raincoat, then hid back inside her mane. "I...I _can't_," she sobbed.

"What's there to worry about, Princess?" Pinkie asked. "You won't get rained on, and it's really not raining that hard, anyway."

"I know, but...I _can't_ switch out into physical form! I just..._can't_!"

Twilight's heart sank, and she felt dread welling up in just about every part of her body; she'd been counting on this working. "But...but Princess!" she stammered, "I-if you can't use the radar, then we won't know where the core is, and we won't be able to save Equestria! The corruption will _win_!"

"_YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?!_" Celestia roared. Twilight fell to the floor and went limp with shock and terror stacked on top of horror: her beloved mentor, whose disappointment was Twilight's greatest fear, was suddenly _furious_ with her!

Celestia continued, "You think I don't _know_ that I'm letting all of Equestria down by being too afraid to do what's necessary?! You think I don't know the _consequences_ of this?!" Celestia went from furious to heartbroken, then added, "You think I don't know I'm letting _you_ down?! I _know _it, Twilight...I know it, and it pains me more than I can tell you!"

She broke down in sobs as Twilight lay there, still frozen in shock and terror-terror at Celestia's anger, and terror at her fear and sorrow. She couldn't think, or even _feel_!

Celestia finally spoke again. "I'm sorry, Twilight...I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you; I shouldn't have scared you like that-you've been through so much already; you don't deserve it! I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that, and...and...there are so many things I _should _be doing, but I'm just not _strong _enough! I-I have my limits; I'm only a pony! ..._I'm so sorry_...!"

Twilight couldn't think-not anymore. She was in utter shock.

"Twilight...please, _say something_!" Celestia begged. "I know how much my approval means to you...oh, Twilight, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! You're a wonderful student; what you said was true. I _am _letting the corruption win! I wish I could stop it; I wish with _all my heart_ that I was brave enough..._but I'm not_!" Celestia began weeping out loud.

Twilight's friends kept silent in their fright, not sure how to react: their Princess was distraught, and their friend, who was closest to the Princess, was in shock and unresponsive.

Finally, the Princess spoke up, "Twilight...can you hear me?"

"Yes," Twilight answered, still in shock. There was no emotion behind her voice.

"Twilight...you're a wonderful student. You're like a daughter to me. I'm not angry with you, or even disappointed. You've _done the right thing_ ever since this crisis started. You've been a good student, a good citizen, and a good _hero_. ...Do you understand me?"

"Yes," Twilight answered. Still with no emotion.

"I..._know_ I'm the one in the wrong. Right now, I think you're a better pony than me. I know I should be braver than I am...but I'm just _not_! _Please_, Twilight-snap out of your shock; _I need your help_!"

Twilight didn't answer.

"If there's _one _thing I've done in _all the centuries_ I've been alive that I could take back, Twilight, it would be yelling at you, just now. I'm sorry, Twilight. Please...forgive me!"

Twilight was silent for a few seconds, then slowly got up and shook herself off a little. She began to try to collect her thoughts-what had just happened? The Princess had yelled at her. What had she done wrong? ...She had put too much pressure on the Princess. She knew the Princess was at her limits in this storm, being stressed in every way, from her fear, her embarrassment, and her guilt-even by the very presence of Twilight and her friends! But Twilight had put the pressure on her, anyway, and that finally put her past the breaking point.

"I'm sorry, Princess," Twilight finally said.

"Twilight-you don't have to be. You're not the one who did something wrong; _I_ am. I knew how much my approval means to you, and I yelled at you anyway for telling me something that's true...it hurt, but it was _true_! I'm sorry, Twilight."

There was silence for a little while, then the Princess said, "I wish...with _all my heart_ that I could find the courage within me to enter physical form...I want to put my wing over you and feel your mane on my shoulder, and...and..._I can't_...I'm so sorry..."

Twilight was finally beginning to get her reasoning back. "Princess, I knew you were suffering a lot out here, but I put pressure on you, anyway. When...when my friends were having trouble saving Equestria while DisQord was attacking, I reminded them what was at stake, and then they found the courage and strength within them to win. I...hoped it would do the same thing here."

"Oh, Twilight-I forgive you for that, if there's anything for me to forgive you for. But...but there are some things that encouragement and knowing what's at stake can't get you past, and...and...this is one of them."

Twilight made a heroic effort to think, to remember what they were doing, and to try to figure out what they _should _be doing. She found it hard to think about anything further away from them than the cloud they were sitting on. She tried going over the painful conversation they were having in her head, and she realized that the Princess was asking for forgiveness. She _had_ hurt Twilight when Twilight was only trying to help-and Twilight began to wonder: since she was trying to help, but made things worse-was she really that different from Derpy? Forgiveness and overlooking accidents were the lubricants that kept Derpy able to function in Ponyville, and now, Twilight needed them, too. ...Did the Princess also need them? ...Celestia sure seemed to think she needed them; she was sobbing and apologizing profusely. And, Twilight suddenly realized, she _had _been in shock for the past several minutes. And it _was_ because the Princess had yelled at her.

Twilight sat down, uncovered her head, and took the Princess's spirit orb in one of her hooves. She rubbed her cheek against it and whispered, "If...you think you need my forgiveness, Princess...you have it."

"I just want you _not to hurt _anymore, Twilight," the Princess said. "I love you so much; I don't want you to feel so terrible. Please-tell me if there's _anything_ I can do, _anything _I can say to help you...! Please, say it, Twilight! _Anything_!"

Twilight tried to think of there was any action Celestia could take that would make her feel better-what was it Twilight had wanted her to do, before? ...She'd wanted Celestia to go into physical form and use the radar spell to find the core, so they could destroy it. That would still be the best way to destroy the core, but suggesting it again now-that would start this whole business of hurt and guilt and forgiveness all over again! If only there was another way-!

Twilight thought back to the time earlier when she had hurt in Everfree Forest, and Celestia, using her wisdom, had healed Twilight's hurts. Maybe Celestia's wisdom could help her again?

Twilight finally answered, "Help me think, Princess..." Then she suddenly realized, her five friends were also right there, also willing and ready to help heal her any way they could. So she added, "And the rest of you, please-help me think, too: why do we need to destroy these cores?"

Rainbow Dash was the first to answer: "Because they're mind-controlling magic doohickies, and if we _don't_ destroy this one, then all of Cloudsdale and all of Ponyville will only be able to feel anger for the rest of their natural lives!"

"But," Twilight thought aloud, trying to get her rusty, cramped brain oiled and working again, "These cores had to come from _somewhere_. In the long run, shouldn't we worry about _that_ first, and _then _clean up the cores after we've dealt with whoever or whatever is making them?"

"Come to think of it," Applejack said, "I don't recall the Princess ever tellin' us much about where these cores came from in the first place. Did yer scroll say?"

"No...no, it didn't," Celestia answered. "My plan was to destroy as many cores as possible to force Satallion, or whoever is behind this corruption, to show himself to deal with us. And now...it's apparent that whoever or _what_ever is behind this corruption is already aware that the rain is my weakness, and it's using _this storm _to deal with us instead of revealing themselves." She sadly added, "I suppose my plan backfired spectacularly."

"_Please_ don't be sad about it!" Pinkie moaned. "I'm _sick_ of everypony being sad! We're all together, we're all warm and cozy, we're protected from the rain _and _the corruption-_why_ do we have to be sad!?"

"Besides," Rarity pointed out, "You had incomplete information; it's not like anypony else could've come up with a better plan than yours!"

"Ooo, I hope you're wrong about that," Fluttershy said, "Because now _we_ need to come up with a better plan!"

"Here's an idea," Twilight suggested. "We can fly someplace else, someplace far away from this storm, and find another corruption core and destroy that one, instead. I mean, does it really matter _which _ones we destroy, as long as we keep destroying them and force Satallion to show himself?"

Celestia sighed heavily. "I'd _love_ to flee from this storm, but...now that the corruption knows my weakness, it'll send downpours as bad as this one after us no matter where we go. As long as the corruption controls the weather factory, it has the power to do that. Running won't keep me safe; we... " The Princess swallowed hard, then continued, with a wavering voice, "We may as well stay here as go elsewhere."

Twilight felt like her heart was about to sink, but she forbade it do so: she had to keep her spirits up. She'd think of something else-wait, did Celestia say "weather factory"? ...What if the weather factory couldn't make rainclouds? "Then...then we'll go to the Cloudsdale weather factory and...and...and we'll _break_ the machines there!"

"WHAT?!" Rainbow Dash cried. "B-b-but all of Equestria _needs_ the rain they make there! All the crops will dry up and die, all the wells will run dry, and everypony will get thirsty and dehydrated and-"

Twilight shouted back, "_I know_! ...It's drastic...but there's no other way to keep the Princess safe! Even if we can't get the core in Cloudsdale, we need to at least get things to the point where we can use the radar again someplace else. And since we can't find the core in Cloudsdale, the only way that's gonna happen is if the weather factory can't make rain clouds anymore! There's just no other way."

"Besides," Applejack pointed out, "After all this is over, they can always fix the machines. You remember Toola-Roola, the mechanic you introduced us to when we toured the weather factory when you won the Young Fliers Competition? She can fix _anything_."

Twilight thought for a moment that, if they couldn't defeat the corruption once and for all, then a drought wouldn't matter: it would be better to die a slow death of starvation and dehydration than it would be to live a long life in utter hate. Twilight thought of voicing that sentiment, but then thought better of it; it was just too macabre a thought, and the last thing they needed was something to make them sadder or more disturbed than they already were. She pushed the grim thought aside, but consoled herself with the knowledge that what she'd thought _was _true.

"Okay, everypony," Twilight said, finally feeling glad that she'd thought of a plan that would work and _finally _had something to _do_ besides sit there and feel three different kinds of awful. She gently put the Princess's spirit orb back in her mane and covered her head snugly. "We're going down!"

At that moment, she felt a blast of wind against her face, turning the soft raindrops into icy needles. Whatever that wind was, it had blasted their cloud shelter apart, and knocked the umbrella off her back, snapping the cord that had tied it to her. Twilight once again felt rain pattering on her head, her shoulders, her back-though it was nowhere near as rough as the downpour had been below. Twilight also heard a loud noise that she could hardly have described, but she knew she'd heard it before.

Rainbow Dash shouted, "I know that sound...! It's the Wonderbolts!"

Applejack gulped. "And we gotta _fight_ 'em?!"

Twilight steeled herself for battle, and tried to think how they could fight a foe this fast. Rainbow Dash would be able to keep pace with them easily, but there were three of them and only one of Rainbow. Besides, nothing Rainbow could do could cure the corruption; only Twilight could do that...!

Suddenly, thick fog rolled over the cloud, and Twilight lost sight of the Wonderbolts. She knew they'd come dive-bombing at them, but didn't know how to predict where they'd come from...wait, what about Pinkie?!

"Pinkie, use your Pinkie-sense!" Twilight shouted, switching out with her. Pinkie acted like she knew where they were coming from, and was able to dodge and hop out of the way of the charging pegasi. But the noise of their approach scared her. She held down her umbrella hat to keep it from blowing away, and shouted, "Okay, Twilight-w-w-what's the plan?"

Twilight tried to think-rain was the pegasi's weakness, right? If they get wet for too long, they can't fly. So maybe the right thing to do is to just let them keep charging until they become too wet to fly?

"Keep doing what you're doing!" Twilight shouted back. "They can't keep this up much longer before they get too wet to fly!"

"Actually, Twilight, they can!" Rainbow Dash explained, "At their speed, the rain won't get a chance to soak in!"

Pinkie dodged another volley of Wonderbolts. "_Please_ think of something, Twilight! I can't keep my umbrella hat on much longer, and if it comes off, you _know _what'll happen to the Princess!"

Twilight tried to think-how can they slow down the Wonderbolts? "Party Cannon!"

Pinkie readied her cannon and fired right where she knew the Wonderbolts were going to be, just as she dodged out of the way-though she had to fire it with her hind legs, since her front hooves were keeping her umbrella hat from flying away. Unfortunately, all that happened was the fly strips were cut to pieces by the impact.

"We need to think of something else...what about a Crystal Prison? Pinkie, can you shout out where Rarity need to throw her gems?"

"I'll try...here they come! Up high, Rarity!"

Rarity switched out and hurled a crystal as high as she could, but it missed. Pinkie quickly switched back out, looked around, then shouted, "Ooo, ooo! Here they come! Down low!" Rarity practically bowled the ice at the Wonderbolts, and jumped to keep from getting rammed. Again, it missed.

"Ohhhh, this is like trying to thread a needle in a haystack!" Rarity shouted as Pinkie switched back out. "Wait-was that...? ...Never mind; we need to think of something else!"

"Uhhhhhh..." Twilight hesitated. She was getting desperate. "Rainbow Dash, try your tornadoes! They're wider!"

Rainbow Dash switched out and hurled a tornado at the Wonderbolts as they were flying in formation at them. All three of them were spun out of control, and they crashed onto the cloud. "I hope I didn't just hurt them!" Rainbow Dash moaned. "If one crash goes out of control, it can end a career!"

Rainbow's worrying had been in vain; they were getting up, and they began to fly. "Rarity, quick!" Rainbow shouted.

Rarity switched out and froze one of the Wonderbolts in ice, but the other two managed to take off and keep their attack up. Twilight switched out and fired as many arrows as she could at the frozen Wonderbolt. He was quickly cured, but Applejack shouted, "Careful, Twilight, any second now the other two are gonna-"

Applejack switched out with Twilight at the last moment as the other two plowed into the place where Twilight was a moment ago-and plowed into Applejack, instead.

"Applejack!" Twilight screamed as Applejack flew across the cloud and landed in a heap. They weren't disappearing and reappearing elsewhere, so she knew that Applejack had survived that impact, but there _had_ to have been some broken bones from it!

Applejack coughed back, "Keep fightin'! Worry about me later; I'm a tough ol' girl!"

Pinkie switched out and kept the pattern up. She shouted for where Rainbow Dash needed to put her tornadoes, and Rainbow Dash knocked the Wonderbolts out of the air. But this time, Pinkie decided to try something different: instead of having Rarity freeze them, she rushed at them and hit them with her party cannon. They fell to the ground in a heap, and Twilight switched out and finished the fight. They were all breathing heavily, then Twilight said, "Rarity, heal Applejack up!"

Rarity switched out and touched a few heart crystals to Applejack's orb. After a few of them, she said, "That's enough; I feel fine. Never felt better. Lemme prove it."

Applejack switched out and bucked the crystal prison. It shattered, and the Wonderbolt was freed.

"Applejack, you didn't have to take that hit for me!" Twilight scolded. "Do you know what it's like seeing your friend get injured?"

"_Yes, I do_," Applejack answered. "I seen it happen to Pinkie, remember? An' that's exactly why I switched out. It was either you or me, an' I can take a hit better 'n you can. B'sides, two minutes later, and Rarity has me on my feet again, an' I feel fine. Don't be mad about this-at me _or_ yourself. I _know_ you're doin' the best you can, an' it's good enough fer me."

"I hate to interrupt," Rarity cut in, "But the rain isn't going to get any lighter from here on out. I think we should find the umbrella back!" Rarity switched out and began using her magic to look for it.

While she was doing that, Rainbow Dash started talking with the Wonderbolts: "Guys...sorry for fighting you back there, but...you wouldn't happen to have seen a magic, swirling purple cloud-thing, would you?"

They took their goggles off, and Rainbow Dash immediately recognized them: Spitfire, Fleet Foot, and Soarin! Spitfire shook her head. "I didn't see anything like that; sorry. Your voice...sounds like...Rainbow Dash, but you don't _look _like her..."

"It _is_ me; I'm Rainbow Dash! But I'm in spirit form-this is all part of the Princess's spell that's helping the six of us fight the dark magic. There's no time to explain it all."

Twilight noticed that the Wonderbolts' flight suits were actually keeping their wings dry, so her initial strategy during the fight, which was to slow them down by soaking their wings, wouldn't have worked. But at least they had still won that fight, anyway.

Rarity found the umbrella back, straightened it out so it was no longer inside-out, pulled some spare fabric out of her saddlebag, and tied up the broken straps so that they would work again. After firmly strapping it to her back, she said, "We've got to get to the weather factory! There's no time to lose!"

Rainbow Dash switched out. "Sorry to leave you guys hanging, but we've gotta move! Get as far away from Cloudsdale as you can!"

Rainbow Dash began descending through the clouds, and the downpour beat harder and harder against their umbrella. All six of them kept their eyes open in all directions for any sign of pegasi who might be attacking them, but only one or two came at them.

"Looks like the corruption ran out of troops that can still fly," Twilight thought aloud. "At least that's one less thing to worry about!"

"Um...what if the factory is...guarded?" Fluttershy asked.

"We'll just have to fight, then," Twilight thought aloud.

Applejack wondered aloud, "I don't get it. If the rain ain't workin' to stop us, why doesn't the corruption make it stop an' _then _send pegasi after us?"

"Either it knows we could use the radar if the rain stopped, or...or it's...trying to get to _me_," Celestia answered. She slowly added, "...It's working, but...so are you."

"Don't worry, Princess! We'll get this storm stopped before you know it!" Rainbow declared.

They landed in the weather factory and looked around. There were no ponies in sight, but that didn't mean there weren't any at all. The inside of the factory was dark; the lights were all switched off, and with all the storm clouds looming overhead, there was no light coming in from the stars-the only light came from their glowing spirit orbs. Only the flashing lightning illuminated the place beyond that, and the sound of whirring and clanking machines lent the whole factory a creepy vibe.

Fluttershy let out a trembling whimper. "Do we _have_ to go in here? It's so..._scary_!"

"Don't be scared, Darling!" Rarity insisted, closing the umbrella and putting it away in her saddlebag.

"It's okay, Fluttershy," Applejack added. "We're _all_ scared, here. But don't worry; we'll be okay. We're all here fer each other. Whatever's in this factory, we ken handle it!"

"Pinkie, take point," Twilight suggested. "If there are any ponies waiting in ambush, we'll want to find out from you instead of them."

"Okie-dokie-loki!" Pinkie switched out and bounded forwards, then stopped short. "Something's coming, guys!" she shouted. "But it's _not_ ponies!"

Twilight switched out and readied her arrows. But what rushed into her view was something she'd never seen before: airy-looking monsters that looked almost like ghosts made of dark, purple smoke charged at her-they reminded her a lot of the corruption cores. She fired her arrows at them, and while they took more hits than a corrupted pony would take, they did disappear with a shriek when they had taken enough arrows. They were also able to throw dark arrows back at her, which forced her to dodge. But she could still take them.

After they were all destroyed, Twilight paused a moment to catch her breath. She asked, "What _were_ those things?"

Celestia answered, "I'm not sure, but they looked like...elementals."

"Elementals?"

"Creatures made of pure magical energy. The scroll-or any intact part of it-did not mention them. But it looks as if they are _made _of corruption, somehow."

Twilight gulped. "The corruption is getting more powerful...this isn't good!"

"Twilight...the core...!" Celestia exclaimed. "It's _here_, in the factory; I can sense it!"

"Then maybe we don't have to break the machines, after all!" Rainbow Dash thought aloud. "What're we waiting for?! Let's destroy it!"

Pinkie took point again and they began searching the factory. They passed a lot of machines for making rainbows, clouds, and snow, but the only sign that they were getting near the core was that there were more and more elementals coming at them.

Finally, they came to Toola-Roola's workshop, where she was usually inventing new machines or trying to find more efficient ways of getting things done. And then they saw the core, in a way they'd never seen it before: it was attached to machinery, and had claws and two wheels underneath it like a bicycle, and even a disturbing, toothy, gorilla-like face.

"And so, we meet at last," the core said to them. Its voice reminded them of how Rainbow Dash and the Cakes had sounded when they were corrupted.

Pinkie backed away a little at first in fear, but then realized she had to stand and fight. She pinned her ears and snarled, "I'm not scared, I'M NOT SCARED!"

"I disagree. And should you really be ashamed of your fear? Fear _is_ the proper response!" the core sneered back.

Celestia shouted up to the core, with all her imperious royalty, "Who are you, and why have you invaded our home soil?!"

"Have you forgotten already?" the core answered. "How unexpected. I know ponies don't have the best memory, but _you _ought to be an exception. After all, you are ageless! ...Very well, I will answer: I am Satallion-though not quite in the flesh; this golem is really just an experiment of mine to give me eyes and teeth in two places at once. And I suppose this isn't exactly the first time you and I have met. Then again, it wouldn't be the first time for _anypony_; after all: anywhere there is hate, there am I."

"Then why do you come into the land of the living? Why aren't you satisfied with what you already-"

The core interrupted Celestia with a booming, vile laugh. "You should know that hate is _never_ satisfied, dear little Tia!"

"_Don't call me that_!" Celestia snapped back.

The core ignored her words and continued, "And I don't care about your soil, either. I want your little ponies, and _I will have them_! And _you_...you will suffer for endless ages in your own personal monsoon, as nothing more than my _pet_!"

The core was done talking; it extended a kind of a horn-like apparatus on one of its claws and sent storm clouds flying at them. Rain gushed out of the clouds like Twilight had never seen before, and she knew she didn't want to get caught under one of those rainfalls. Rainbow Dash switched out and flew over the clouds, and for good measure, sent a tornado at his face to see what would happen-unfortunately, nothing did, though her tornado did deflect one of the clouds.

"It is _futile_!" the core taunted her. The core extended another arm, one that reminded them of a crossbow. It seemed to charge up and fire, and it sent out arrows that looked almost exactly like Twilight's arrows of light-except these arrows were a dark, sickly purple, just like the elementals' arrows! Rainbow Dash dodged as best she could, and tried deflecting the arrows with a tornado-it had worked on Twilight's arrows when Rainbow was corrupted, after all. But it didn't work here.

"Your quest ends here!" the core shouted, and sparks filled the room and rushed toward Rainbow Dash. They surrounded her and seemed to infuse into her. She didn't feel a thing, except for that strange feeling you get when you scuff your feet on a carpet, and all your hair stands on end. Then there was suddenly a flash, a loud BANG, and then it all went black.

The next thing they knew, they were in the middle of the weather factory.

"What just happened?" Pinkie asked.

"I think...we were hit by lightning!" Rarity moaned. She checked her saddlebag. "It's just as I feared: there were ten sunstones in here before, and now there are only nine!"

"Was that the attract-the-lightning spell you were talking about earlier?!" Rainbow Dash asked Twilight.

"It must be," Twilight sighed.

"Isn't there anything you can do about it?"

"_No_; if I use any magic, the Spell of Unity will be disrupted, and this is the _last_ place we want it to be disrupted at!"

"So...what _can_ we do?" Fluttershy asked.

"Hmm...spirits aren't quite made of physical matter, but ions are. So if an ionized pony switches into spirit form, _maybe_ that'll remove the ionization!"

"Switch out? That's _it_?!" Rainbow Dash asked.

"It's all I can think of," Twilight answered. "It's worth a try, in any case."

"Why would he use an attack that we can get out of just by switching out?" Applejack asked.

"Maybe because he doesn't know we can. Or, if he thought that he can get rid of us in one shot if we make a mistake and don't switch out or don't see it coming, then he'd try it...!"

"He doesn't know the Spell of Unity will revive us each time?!" Rarity thought aloud.

"We'll find out in a minute," Twilight said.

"Wait a minute," Pinkie said. "Before we go in, I think I should ask: how do we hurt him?"

There was a pause for a moment, then Twilight finally said, "I'm not sure...all we can do is keep our eyes open and hope for an opportunity."

Applejack suggested, "If he's made of corruption, won't your arrows work?"

"Not if he has magical shields like Trixie did, but...well, it's worth a try..."

Rainbow Dash zoomed into Toola Roola's workshop again, and the core once again chuckled: "And so, we meet at last." It said it exactly the same way it had the first time they saw it.

"Already heard it; don't wanna hear it _again_!" Rainbow Dash snorted.

Twilight switched out and began firing arrows at the core, but they had no effect. The core ignored her attack, and chuckled darkly again. "Heard it before, you say? So, the Spell of Unity gives you extra lives. ..._Good_! Then I can kill you _over _and _over _again. The fact that I won't remember each time is a small price to pay-for the fact that _you __**will**_remember each time!"

The core roared with cruel laughter, and sent a storm cloud over Twilight. She was about to switch out, but the waterfall swept over her before she could. She fell to the ground; it didn't feel like rain at all-it felt like she had been hit with a ton of bricks that happened to be made of liquid water. Rainbow Dash switched with Twilight before Twilight could regain her senses, so the next thing she knew, Dash was dodging arrows and storm clouds, and she was in spirit form.

"Have a nice death!" the core taunted, as more sparks flew at Rainbow Dash.

Applejack switched out, and the sparks seemed to disappear. The lightning crackled outside the weather factory, but didn't touch anything inside it.

"Ah, so you have learned," the core chuckled. "Go ahead; drag this out. It'll be more _fun_!"

"Forget you!" Applejack snorted.

"_You _will be forgotten!" the core roared, charging at them. It was unsettling to see such a huge contraption rushing at her, but Applejack kept her head and remembered something she learned as a filly: the more moving parts a thing has, the easier it is to break. And the gear-like wheels of this monstrosity looked pretty complicated, so she flung her lasso at the front wheel, tangling it up -and the core fell over! Applejack chuckled back, "Shouldn't 'a' built yerself so top-heavy!"

When they looked at the underside of the core, they saw an exposed part that seemed to glow with some kind of corruption-based magic. Twilight switched out and began firing arrows at that glowing spot. The core roared in pain, and as Twilight continued to fire, one of the core's claws fell off-it was the horn-claw that had been sending out storm clouds. Twilight was _glad_ that the core had lost its ability to bring rain indoors, but she backed away as the core began to get back up.

The core took the broken pieces of the horn-claw and used them to cover its wheels with some kind of plating. Then it extended a new claw that had some kind of hook-shaped magical apparatus on the end. "Remember..._this_?" The core sent waves of dark magic at them, just the same as the Manticore, Trixie, and Gilda had. Rainbow Dash flew to the ceiling to avoid them, but then the core began sending the dark waves at her across the _ceiling _instead of across the floor. Rainbow was still able to dodge them easily, though.

"Now, _perish_!" the core shouted, and more sparks flew onto Rainbow Dash. She switched with Pinkie, and Pinkie fired her party cannon at the core-to no avail. She was still able to jump over the dark waves; she was pretty agile. The core again sent sparks at Pinkie, and Pinkie switched with Applejack. Applejack looked for a place where she could lasso the core's wheels again, but she couldn't see one. She tried slamming the floor with her legs, since the core still looked top-heavy. The core tottered a bit, but was still steady enough to fight.

The core sent out more magic waves, and Rainbow Dash switched out to try to dodge them. Twilight had paid close attention to this battle, and she knew that they had to try something. The one thing they hadn't tried yet was using a crystal prison, so she shouted, "Rarity! Crystallize his wheels!"

"No, you don't!" the core shouted, sending sparks into Rarity just as she threw ice at his wheels. She switched with Applejack just in time, and the lightning again flashed outside instead of inside.

"Now, Applejack! Pound the ground!" Applejack did as she was told, and the core fell over backwards. Twilight switched out and fired again and again, as fast as she could at the core's exposed weak point. The core kept moaning and roaring in pain, and finally, the core's magic wave-arm _and _its wheels fell off. The core shoved itself back up onto its base, covering its weak point once more.

"Ha ha! _Now_ what're you going to do?" the core taunted them.

"No, what're _you_ gonna do?!" Pinkie shot back.

"Noooot the best comeback, Pinkie," Twilight muttered under her breath.

"It certainly wasn't," the core agreed. It extended its crossbow-arm to the center of the room and began firing as fast as it could. Pinkie switched out and tried to dodge as best she could, but she couldn't help but get hit a few times. Each time, she yelped in pain, and with each yelp, the core again roared with cruel laughter. Twilight could feel herself getting angrier and angrier at this core; she honestly couldn't tell whether it was more like a playground bully or a predator who enjoyed hunting too much, but she just couldn't stomach it laughing at Pinkie while she was getting hurt.

"Now, _perish_!" the core repeated, sending sparks into Pinkie. Pinkie switched with Rainbow Dash, and the lightning again missed them. Rainbow Dash dodged the arrows as best she could, too, and she tried throwing more tornadoes at the core and its arm to see what it would do. But there was no effect; the arrows kept coming. The lightning came again, and Rainbow and Applejack switched to keep Rainbow safe.

Twilight's mind raced: this wasn't getting them anywhere! "Applejack, try an earthquake!" Applejack pounded the ground, but it didn't do a thing-all she got was a dark arrow in the back for her trouble.

The core roared with cruel laughter. "You will face me again and again until your precious Spell of Unity can no longer revive you! And then I will rule the land of the living unchecked, unhindered, and unparalleled for eternity!"

Twilight tried her best to think or something, anything, that would work. Could one of them buck the crossbow-arm and break it? ...No, the metal looked too strong. Wait-_metal_! The metal could conduct the electricity of the lightning!

As more sparks flew into Applejack, Twilight shouted, "Don't switch, don't switch! _Trust _me!" Applejack's face took on a worried expression, but she didn't try to switch out. There was a loud BOOM, but she wasn't hit by the lightning. Instead, the core's arrow arm was hit, and the arrow-arm fell off, damaged beyond repair.

"Clever little ponies," the core snarled. "But I'm not through yet!" One more arm extended out of the core's belly, and it contained a tangled-looking mess of mini-arms, and on the tip of each mini-arm was a dark crystal. "I like your crystal prison trick; but let's see how much _you_ like it when_ I _use it!" The core hurled one of the gems at Applejack, but even Applejack was quick enough to dodge it. Rainbow Dash switched out and flew as best she could to dodge each crystal.

Twilight looked at the arm, and saw that, as much as it looked like a tangled mess of tiny mini-arms, it wasn't such a mess, after all. Each mini-arm was working with all the other mini-arms to make sure nothing was tangled, and the relay of dark crystals never stopped. There were a lot of carefully-coordinated small gears inside the arm, but if those were thrown out of whack...!

"Pinkie, party cannon!" Twilight shouted. Pinkie switched out and tangled the crystal arm in fly paper, and it was amazing how much that threw the arm off. The arm began flailing this way and that way, and as it flailed, it exposed another glowing magic part. Twilight wasted no time blasting at it with her arrows, and it didn't take long before all the mechanical parts on the core fell off, and the core lay defenseless.

"You may have destroyed my core's defenses," the core gloated, "But tell me this: how can you destroy the core itself? Your Princess is absolutely _frozen_ with terror! She cannot draw you all into physical form to use your 'Elements of Harmony'!"

Twilight gulped: the core was right. The rain was still very audible on the roof of the weather factory, and visible outside the enormous, open windows.

"_And_ tell me _this_," the core continued: "What makes you think you've destroyed _all_ this core's defenses?"

Twilight heard a rumbling in the distance that was coming closer. It wasn't thunder; it was something else...then she suddenly realized that it was the hooves of an _army_ of corrupted pegasi, all of them headed straight for the weather factory to _take them out_!

"Princess, _you can do this_!" Twilight shouted. "If we run now, we'll be in the same situation we'd be in if we'd run at the top of Cloudsdale; the corruption will still control the weather, and...and there's no time to sabotage the machines! You've _got_ to activate the Spell of Unity to let us use the Elements of Harmony!"

The Princess only sobbed back.

"Princess, I know you better than anypony in Equestria!" Twilight insisted. "I know you won't let us down, but time is running out!" Twilight could hear that the charging army was in the weather factory by now. She suddenly realized that she was putting too much pressure on Celestia again, so she added, "But even if you can't do this now...you'll be able to try again. The Spell of Unity will revive us; you'll get another chance to find the courage within you to do the right thing."

"You mean another chance to suffer-and to watch her dearest subjects get torn apart by _my little ponies_!?" the core taunted.

"_Shut up_!" Twilight snorted. She turned towards the approaching army of pegasi, and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Go ahead! Finish me! Make it as painful as you like! It doesn't matter. The Spell of Unity will revive us, and it'll be like it never happened! So bring it on; I'll take it-for Celestia! And I'll keep getting hurt, and I'll _keep dying_ for as many times as it takes! I believe in Celestia; she'll find the courage inside her to do the right thing, _just you wait_! And I'll give her as many chances as she needs! I'll _never_ give up on her, you hear me!? _Never_!"

The pegasi were getting closer and closer; Twilight could hear their hooves just around the corner. She steeled herself for the agony that was about to come her way, prepared to suffer whatever was necessary-and then Twilight heard Celestia give off a scream of the most heroic effort of will she'd ever witnessed in her life, and Celestia and her five friends burst into physical form. They didn't waste a second using the Elements of Harmony on the core, and the core vanished, leaving behind scattered gemstones and a broken gorilla mask.

It was not a moment too soon, either: the first few pegasi were already in the workshop by the time the corruption left them. And they were the Ponyville weather team, again. Twilight wondered how they had gotten corrupted again, but she didn't get a chance to ask: Rainbow Dash shouted to them, "Don't just flap there; get this rain cleared out! Princess Celestia can't _stand_ rain!" With that, the weather team was off like a shot. They were the only pegasi still able to fly; the rest were all far too wet to use their wings. Twilight was worried that there wouldn't be enough pegasi to handle this downpour, but within seconds, the rain began clearing away from the factory.

As her friends began picking up gems to heal themselves, Twilight looked at Celestia. There was an absent look of shock and horror on her face, and she was breathing quickly. Twilight remembered the words Celestia had said before about wishing she could put her wing over Twilight and feel Twilight's mane on her shoulder, so even though her raincoat was still drenched, Twilight snuggled up beside Celestia and rubbed her mane against Celestia's shoulder. "Don't worry, Princess!" Twilight insisted. "It's over; you did it. You found the courage inside yourself to do the right thing, and now Cloudsdale and Ponyville are free. You don't have to walk away from this crisis with any regrets! And the hurting is behind you. Please...don't be scared!"

Celestia seemed to come to her senses. Twilight felt Celestia's wing wrap around her and tug her closely to her side. Celestia's face rubbed against Twilight's cheek. "You're right, Twilight. I'm not going to live with regrets any longer...no...that's not true; I _will_ regret never being able to do this with you again."

Twilight did not like the sound of that. "What?! ...Princess, I...I don't know what that means, but...the hurting is _over_ now! I _want _it to be over! Whatever it is that you're thinking, _please _don't do anything crazy!"

The Princess seemed determined. "What I'm about to do is the right thing...and it'll be the sanest thing I've ever done. I'm _through _carrying secrets around! I should've done this a thousand years ago, even if it _would've_ ended with a javelin through my back!"

Twilight gasped, but the Princess didn't stop. She turned to the pegasi who were still inside the factory, confused and hoping for an explanation. "Pegasi of Cloudsdale, hear your Princess's confession!"

"_Confession_?!" Twilight interrupted. "But..._no_! Princess, you couldn't have done anything that bad! It just isn't _in _you!"

Celestia was silent for a moment, and then a tear trickled down her cheek. Choking back the tears, she finally said, "Your...good faith in me means more to me than I can tell you, Twilight, but...there's much more in me than you realize."

She turned back to the pegasi and continued, "You have been taught that your people have always controlled the weather. But this is not the truth: it was shortly after my rule began that you gained the ability to move clouds. And...it was because of me that you gained it." The Princess swallowed hard and built up her willpower to continue. "Since I was a young mare, I've had a terrible fear of rain, as Rainbow Dash said. And...I used my magic to give all pegasi forever the ability to move clouds so that they would keep the sky clear wherever I went. I told them at the time...that I was giving them this power so they could stabilize nature and make sure our farmers never had a bad growing year, but...but it was a lie; I was really making all pegasi everywhere as much slaves to my fear as I was! I was _using _an _entire race_! And...and I wrote the history books myself to make sure everypony believed that the pegasi had _always_ controlled the weather; I lied to cover up my tracks." The Princess paused, breathing heavily. The pegasi didn't know how to react.

After a few moments, Celestia continued, "I...I want you all to know that I am deeply sorry for using you and your ancestors like this, and...I'm prepared to pay the price for my transgressions. When this crisis is over...I will go into exile in the sun, just as Princess Luna was exiled to the moon. Then, you shall all be truly free...and I...I will never have to endure my fear again!"

Twilight had gone through a lot during this adventure, and she was worried that this was too much for her to take. But she decided she'd keep fighting, keep thinking, and keep doing the right thing until she ran out of strength. And she wasn't quite out of strength yet. She couldn't just let the Princess leave without trying to convince her to stay! "Princess, _please _don't go! You don't have to banish yourself for this! What would I-what would _anypony_ do without you?!"

Rainbow Dash immediately swooped in front of the Princess and cried, "I think I speak for every pegasus alive today, and even every pegasus who's ever lived, when I say that we would _gladly_ clear the skies for you _any_ day, fear of rain or not!"

Fluttershy stepped up, too, and added, "And I've never moved a cloud in my life! _I'm _not a slave to your fear!" Twilight paused to think that every eye in the room was on Fluttershy, and that would normally terrify her. But the urgency of losing her Princess made her not only overcome that fear, but forget about it entirely.

"See?" Rainbow Dash insisted. "We're _not_ slaves; Fluttershy is living proof of it!"

Applejack stepped forward as well, taking her hat off respectfully. "An' Princess, in the whole history of my family, we have never once had a bad growing year on account of the weather-not once in all these centuries! Even if what you did wasn't for the reasons you said, you ain't hurt a darned thing by havin' the pegasi control our weather. If anything, it was a great service to your people."

Rarity added, "At worst, you did the right thing for the wrong reason! Exile to the sun-that's _far _too much!"

Pinkie swallowed hard. "I...I'm not smart like Twilight, or mature like any of the other ponies here, and...and I'm not good at thinking of things to say, but...but I don't want you to go, either! You've always been the best Princess we could ask for! You're smart, you're fun to be around, you always protect your people when monsters or changelings or dragons come along...and...and _I love you_! I don't want you to go-ho-ho!"

"She's right," Applejack said, kneeling. "I'm askin' you on my knees, Princess: don't leave us. I can't think of anypony else what could fill the empty space in our hearts and lives if you left us. Even if you have done wrong...I still want you as my Princess."

Rainbow Dash turned to the crowd of pegasi. "Don't we all feel that way!?"

The crowd roared its agreement.

Rainbow Dash screamed at the top of her longs, "THREE CHEERS FOR PRINCESS CELESTIA! HIP HIP!"

"HOORAY!" the crowd echoed.

"HIP HIP!"

"HOORAY!"

Rainbow Dash inhaled deeply for the last one, and even louder, shouted, "_HIP HIP_!"

And the crowd echoed even louder, "_HOORAAAY_!"

The Spell of Unity kicked in again, and only Twilight and the Princess were left in physical form. The Princess's face showed shock: she hadn't been expecting them to forgive her. She'd been expecting to have to leave everything she'd ever cared about in shame to live an empty, eternal existence; she'd expected to be hated and treated like a criminal. She felt like she was a criminal...but these ponies had given back to her _everything_ she'd been prepared to give up. She was _not_ prepared for this.

Terrible silence hung in the air, and Twilight wasn't sure what Celestia would do or say next. The only thing she could think to do was to silently rest her head against Celestia's shoulder and gently nuzzle her.

The Princess slowly looked down at Twilight, her expression unreadable. Twilight stared back. Finally, Twilight whispered, "Please...tell us you'll stay."

After another few seconds of silence, the Princess finally said, barely loud enough for the pegasi to hear it, "I'll stay, Twilight."

The crowd did not cheer; the ones in front were the only ones who had heard her answer, and they knew better than to break up this tender moment with a lot of noise. But there was a lot of relieved whispering to spread the news, and the relief in the room could practically be felt.

For a few minutes, they all just stood there-Celestia holding Twilight close with her wing, Twilight resting her head on Celestia's shoulder, both of them feeling too overwhelmed with horror, love, and relief to speak. The crowd wasn't sure how to react, but they were awaiting any order, any request from their Princess.

Twilight was beginning to ask herself whether they could afford a delay like this. Her heart told her it was worth it, but her mind questioned that. Weren't there more cores that needed to be destroyed?

Celestia seemed to have the same thing going through her mind; she said, "Twilight...this crisis is not over. Our work is not done."

"W...will you send the radar out now, Princess?"

"No...I know that there had to have been a core somewhere in Canterlot, and it's the closest. I'm...still not quite myself...and...I think you're probably feeling the same way, but...we can't delay."

Twilight nodded. "How do we get there?"

"On my back," Celestia answered, getting down on the ground.

Twilight had NEVER been on the Princess's back, and the thought of her having a load on her back of any kind was somewhat unsettling to Twilight. She was a Princess; carrying loads was for her subjects, not her! But Twilight didn't complain; she just tried to enjoy the honor while she could-and to enjoy the fact that this brought her that much closer to her beloved ruler and mentor. But it was hard for her to enjoy anything; she still felt shocked and overwhelmed.

"You may not be able to cast spells, Twilight, but I can." As soon as Twilight was securely mounted, Celestia rose up, spread her wings, and flew up towards the moon through the parting clouds. They quickly winked out of existence as Celestia began a teleportation spell that would take her back to the castle.

Author's notes:

This last chapter-man, was it longer than I thought it would be! To be honest, not much more happens in it than happened in chapter 2-at least as far as gameplay goes. There were three bosses here: Gilda, the Wonderbolts, and the Weather Golem, and there were also three bosses in Everfree Forest: Zecora, the Manticore, and the Dragon.

On the subject of the Wonderbolts, the great thing about the corruption is that it allows me to use characters from the stories as enemies and bosses, even if they'd NEVER attack the mane cast normally. Zecora, the Mayor, Derpy-heck: four of the mane six themselves were bosses in chapter 1!

Which reminds me, I've finally thought of a way Derpy can be a playable character-and a surprisingly good character, at that: if you agree to let her come with you to Cloudsdale just after you come out of Rarity's boutique, then you can play as her. Probably she'd have the "V" key as her switch-button-D is taken, E and R are taken, Y is a little too far away, P is _way _too far away (I'd have given it to Pinkie if it weren't), and H is probably still a little too far away-V is really close, so it seemed like the best choice.

And I've thought of plenty of things about what playing as Derpy would be like: since Fluttershy is a Glass Cannon and Rainbow Dash is a Fragile Speedster, what we're lacking in the pegasus department here is a Mighty Glacier. So Derpy would have a lot of health, but be pretty slow (HA!). And her attack-well, you know her cutie mark is bubbles, so her attack would actually be to blow a bubble, which acts as a slow-moving projectile. So far, sounds pretty lame, right? Except when I add that the bubble, when it touches an enemy and bursts, uncorrupts an _area_ of enemies. It gets better: I figure that, the way Derpy could be played, she'd be able to fire one bubble, turn around quickly, then fire another, and you'd basically have two walls on either side of your character to protect you from enemies. This would actually make her one of the best defensive characters in the game; maybe even more defensive than Applejack. I have in mind that AJ's Earthquake attack would stun and knock back nearby enemies. That's instant and can be done with one button push as opposed to three for Derpy (attack/turn/attack), and on the ground it'll probably be better than Derpy's "bubble wall" technique. But in the air, the ground-pound won't work. (I suppose the tvtropes guys would call Derpy a "Lethal Joke Character"-and wouldn't want her any other way :) )

I'd like to add that the weather golem's design is at least partly based on an alternate title for a cartoon adaptation of the Rainbow Factory gluefic: "Captain Hook the Biker Gorilla". I originally had in mind a more bizarre amalgamation of short, spidery legs, robotic claws, and a toothy, piranha-like face, but I wasn't too attached to that design for the weather golem boss, so I decided to switch it out and add another shout-out to this game/fic. If you're wondering why I decided to use the weather golem as the final boss of the level, rather than some more familiar character...it's probably because I wanted a mechanical boss to go along with the mechanical segment of the level. Plus, you want at least some originality to a fic/game like this.

One thing I'd like to say about the scene where Celestia reveals her big secret: re-read the part just before it where Twilight is talking to her. For that matter, re-read the science scene where Twilight talks about hail while she's bundling up, and the scene where Celestia is in the mess hall, revealing a little of the secret to the mane six. Those scenes looks a _lot_ different when you know what Celestia's secret is!

By the way, you might've remembered early-on that Twilight was thinking "there were two dimensions in Ponyville and three here". Well, I never really had in mind to make this a 3D game-that's not to say that I couldn't make it one (though I'd have a lot more to learn about programming if I was going to do that), but I had imagined this as a 2D platformer. If I was going to pitch this to Hasbro, I'd want it to be a 2D platformer; those are easy to learn for beginner gamers (e.g. the single-digit-aged girls that the game ought to be able to appeal to). But the fact that pegasi can fly around freely instead of always running along the ground means that there are aspects to the fight that you didn't have to deal with, before, and it would almost be like fighting in two dimensions when you only had to fight in one dimension before.

Something I'm thinking about in terms of a game adaptation is...well, it might be downright _scary_ for a six-year-old girl to be playing this and hear Celestia scream angrily at Twilight for no good reason. (Well, no _Lawful Good_ reason, if you get what I mean.) This would be especially true if the six-year-old girl had a history of being abused; Celestia is something like a mother-figure or a God-figure, someone who you can always look up to and trust to be wise. She's kind of like Superman as a mare. And here, in this fic, she absolutely breaks down. On the one hand, it would teach little girls that even mother-figures can do the wrong thing, need to be dealt with with patience, and sometimes need to apologize, but on the other hand-I'd rather not be responsible for scarring anyone's childhood! It's bad enough I've just about scarred poor Twilight for life...! This may be one of the things that needs to be changed in the process of adaption, as awesome as it is.

While I'm talking about changes for a game adaptation, probably there's a lot of angst that would need to be taken out. In particular, I doubt Twilight's angst in Everfree about five different things at once would make it into a game adaptaion, and for good reason: angst like that works for a fic, but it's not that helpful as a plot device for a game-especially when it has nothing whatsoever to do with the gameplay. And while philosopher references might be funny and decent for a fic aimed at bronies, they'd not be good for a game aimed at six-year-old girls unless parents were expected to play along-and even then, it's iffy. (Sesame Street and similar children's shows have jokes only adults would get, because the adults are expected to watch with their kids. I could show you a pretty set of them in Square One TV, but...I digress.)

Another thing I thought about this was: should I make it a choice for the player whether the mane six get raincoats or not? I'm trying hard to think of a benefit to them _not_ stopping to get raincoats, and it's hard to think of a positive side-except _maybe_ saved time (I'll discuss this further down). Remember where Twilight was thinking that it would hurt them if they were out in the storm, since it was so cold and wet? I actually had in mind a mechanic where each of the mane six has a blue meter that fills up over time, and represents how cold and wet the pony is getting-the longer a pony is in physical form, the more the meter fills up. Being under shelter can help lower the meter, or switching out with another pony resets the meter-or, rather, if you are playing as Twilight and switch to Applejack, then Twilight's meter gets replaced with Applejack's meter, and Twilight's meter gradually empties while she's in spirit form. If any pony's meter fills up completely, you take damage. ...Offhand, this doesn't sound like a very fun mechanic, and it just forces you to switch ponies a little more often. I'm a little afraid it would quickly turn Cloudsdale into what they'd call a Scrappy Level on ! I'd prefer to avoid having that happen. Besides, in the boss fight with the Weather Golem, forcing the player to switch as a defensive move is a tactic that is, as far as _this _narrative is concerned, unique: every other time when the ponies switch with another pony in a boss fight in this narrative, it's because they need that other pony in physical form to use her attack on the boss (Zecora is half an exception; switching cures hypnosis, but using FS's birds blocks it so you don't get hypnotized in the first place). Here, the question of when to switch is about surviving, not attacking, and no other boss so far has that. If I make that you-need-to-switch-so-nopony-gets-hypothermia mechanic part of the normal Cloudsdale gameplay, then I lose the uniqueness. I could always redesign the boss fight (I already did redesign the boss to look more like Captain Hook the Biker Gorilla), but still...at the moment, I'm leaning in the direction of not making it a choice for the player whether they get raingear or not.

Besides, if the order of operations was the way I had it in this story-i.e. first they go into the boutique and get raincoats, and then after that they meet Derpy who's already in a raincoat-then even if the player says "no raincoats for you, mane six!", and then the player invites Derpy to the party, then Derpy will still have a raincoat despite the player's decision, and Derpy will not have that blue bar when you play as her in Cloudsdale: she'll be completely overpowered compared to the other six! There will _literally _be no point in playing as anyone other than Derpy until you get to the bosses. As such, if these events get made into a game, probably the "I missed" scene will happen _before _they go into the boutique, not afterwards. And _then_ the player will have the opportunity to choose, "Do we get raincoats, or don't we?" ...Again, that assumes I actually give the player that choice; I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't.

Again, choices steer the plot. Remember when the mane six had the option of escorting Zecora back to Ponyville at the start of Chapter 2? What I have in mind right now is that, if Zecora is escorted back, she'll head straight for the library and tell Spike and the Mayor that all is well in Ponyville. I could use that in more ways than one, too: the fact is, very few ponies in Equestria are even aware of the corruption cores and the Spell of Unity, but if Zecora comes and explains it to the Mayor, then she'll make sure everypony in Ponyville knows what's going on. Heck, they could evacuate Ponyville once they see Cloudsdale coming! ...On second thought, that's a bad idea: there'd be a huge storm coming, no place for all the Ponyville ponies to run to and no shelter for them, and there'd be an army of pegasi on their backs...except that, once the pegasi are on the ground and soaked, they can't come up to Cloudsdale and harass the mane six! So maybe it's a good idea, after all... But what I'd had in mind at first was, when Zecora told Spike early on that it was safe for him and the Mayor to come out, _he'll be at Rarity's boutique _at the start of chapter 3 along with Sweetie Belle and the rest of Rarity's family. And when Rarity realizes that Celestia needs a raincoat, too, Spike heats the iron up with his fire-breath, and then Rarity turns a bolt of waterproof fabric into a rain-cape for Celestia. That might take the edge off of Celestia's fear, or have other effects on the plot.

But if it's up to the player whether they get raincoats or not, then the whole thing could be made a moot point if the player says "no". The more I think about it, the less I like the idea of making it a gameplay choice, though if I mixed in an achievement system and made it clear to the player that the adventure will get _much_ harder if they choose not to get raincoats, then _maybe_ it would work. I guess it's not worth making a bad game review about a game where the reviewer says, "Yeah, this part sucks, but you can avoid it easily, and they _do_ warn you about it beforehand."

You remember the part of the laundry where Twilight notices some raincoats hanging on pegs? That was actually an idea I had to make the "Let's Get Blankets and Towels" sidequest possible, even if the player chose not to give the mane six raincoats-remember, that's the event that got them saddlebags, too, so if there wasn't something waterproof in that laundry to wrap the blankets and towels up with, the mane six would have no way of keeping them dry. With this setup, they can wrap the blankets and towels up in those raincoats so that they won't be giving drenched blankets and towels to the children. That _could_ also be a kind of a second chance for players to decide, "Okay, this blue-bar mechanic sucks, so I'm done with it-you guys get raincoats, after all!"

But another issue that makes me lean a little bit in the direction of "let's not make it a gameplay choice" is that Rainbow Dash probably wouldn't have been able to make it to Cloudsdale if her wings were getting soaked, the way I talk about pegasi not being able to fly if they get wet for too long. I could take that "rule" out and just have pegasi flying no matter how bad the weather gets, I suppose (changing those kinds of rules is, again, one of the kinds of changes I expect to happen over the course of adaptation). But if the mane six said, "No time to lose, we can't get raincoats for this", then they _could _have Fluttershy switch out with RD every now and again on the way to Cloudsdale, and they'd make it. It'd be annoying, but doable-and, ironically, it would probably slow them down. And taking out the "soaked pegasi can't fly" rule would mean that enemy pegasi with umbrellas won't have different mechanics from enemy pegasi without umbrellas, so it'd be eliminating an enemy type, too. Alternatively, I could bring back the rule I mentioned during the Wonderbolts fight: if you're going fast enough, the rain won't soak in, and we know Rainbow Dash is all about speed. She could go fast enough to keep the rain from soaking in for sure.

But there is one particularly important thing I've thought of about this whole let's-give-the-mane-six-raincoats thing: it could easily be turned into a _dress-up minigame_, allowing the player to decide what their rain outfits would be. Just imagine pitching this idea to the executives at Hasbro, and telling them "It's a Mario/Megaman/Metroid-like adventure/platformer with a dress-up minigame or two mixed in". That could well clinch it as a perfect game adaptation for My Little Pony!

Hehe...I can just picture the mane six discussing it to warn the player that not getting raincoats is going to make it all harder:

Twilight: If we don't get raincoats now, then our adventure in Cloudsdale will get _much _harder and _much _more dangerous.

Rarity: _And _we'll miss out on the _**fun **_of picking out which raincoats we'll wear! Ohhh, there's so much to choose from: so many colors and boots and hats and accessories and-

Rainbow Dash: _Rarity!_ How can you think about having _fun_ at a time like _this_?! You think this is a _game_?!

Pinkie: Uhhhhh...

Hehe...classic, fourth-wall-breaking Pinkie...!

You may have noticed that I barely described what their raingear looked like at all; the only real requirements were that the pegasi's wings had to be covered up by it, and it had to keep their sweaters dry. There's a reason why I didn't describe them: someday, I may actually try to round up some bronies and get this game built (if someone else doesn't beat me to it, that is), and if I actually do that, I want the artists and musicians and composers I recruit to have a lot of creative control of their own. I.e. I wouldn't want it to be "my" project. (Why should it be _mine _when the creative spark for this whole thing came from Renard's "Vs. Psychoshy" music in the first place?) Yes, I'm expecting a video game adaptation of this fic to have a lot of differences from this narrative (e.g. changing the rules, as mentioned above), and changing their outfits up would definitely count as a part of those changes. But I figure the more ambiguous I am about the way they look, the more those artists will feel like they have creative control. Since creative control for them is where I want to be, I figured might as well take an extra step in the direction of that goal by _not_ including descriptions of their rain outfits in the story proper.

I can tell you what I had in mind for some of their outfits here in the author's notes, though: I figured Twilight's would be a pale purple, maroon, or blue classic brimmed rainhat and slicker (fitted tight to her chest/belly; think the robe she was wearing at the spa in Green Is Not Your Color). Maybe Twilight would have rainpants, too; I'm not sure. For Applejack, I had in mind her cowboy hat and a huge tan/brown duster-it would be fitting for a cowgirl like her; huge dusters like that are often used for riding horses IRL. Fluttershy's is kind of cute, but also very practical: she'd be wearing a large yellow poncho with a hood that mostly covers her face-fitting for someone as shy as her. (I recall her getting a hooded cape from Rarity at the end of "Secret of My Excess", and FS almost immediately had the hood up when she got it, even though it wasn't raining or visibly cold.) But the real thing that made me think Fluttershy would go for a large poncho would be that, if she were with small animals, then there would be plenty of space for those animals to hide under her if they were afraid of the thunder or if they just plain didn't like getting rained on.

Anyhow, Pinkie would obviously have her rainbow umbrella-hat (whose colors mysteriously don't shift around, even when she turns her head-probably it would be too distracting if they did), but past that, I just imagined a pink poncho going down to her hooves. Rarity's outfit would be _almost_ identical to her outfit from the start of "The Return of Harmony"; there'd be a few changes. For instance, she'd have boots (they all would), her head and ears would be a little more protected (I think they kept her ears showing because the ponies' ears are so expressive), and her tail wouldn't be exposed to the elements. Honestly, it surprises me that her raincoat in Return of Harmony left her tail completely unprotected; you'd think she'd be more protective of it after she had to cut it off in Episode 2! At a guess, their tails are one of the more distinctive features of these ponies, and they just don't look right without them; if you recall the episode where RD was hospitalized (the name escapes me, though I'm sure a load of bronies reading this are saying the name out loud at me right now-Read It And Weep, of course!), she was wearing a black sweatsuit to try to sneak back into the hospital and steal the book back-and her tail was showing. The whole point of wearing a black sweatsuit while you're on a heist is to make yourself harder to spot at night; having a rainbow horse-tail flashing around, standing out like a sore thumb, kind of defeats the whole purpose of the black outfit! Same story in It's About Time, where the black rubbersuits Pinkie and Twilight were wearing both had their tails showing. At a guess, no matter how practical it would be to have their tails covered, the artists or the director thought, "They just don't look right without their tails", so they decided to show them, anyway. ...Heck, no matter what I think while I'm sitting here, typing everything out in RTF format with no illustrations, I may well come to the same conclusion and tell our artists that the tails need to be showing, rain or no rain! Alternatively, I could just have their tails sheathed in clear plastic and have a kind of a one-pixel-thick halo of gray or cyan around them, but otherwise have them look exactly the same.

...Where was I...? I had next to nothing in mind for Derpy's rain outfit; probably it would be yellow. I've no idea what Zecora would wear. For Big Mack-I have two ideas. The first is to add in a double-meaning joke and a shout-out to another game called Fiends of Dream Valley that has a similar premise to this game, in that you play as the mane six with only one of them on-screen at a time, and you can switch which one you're playing as (though it's not at the touch of a button, and there's nothing in Fiends of Dream Valley like the Spell of Unity-the ponies just sort of walk into each other Final Fantasy 7-style). One of the NPCs from that game wears a large yellow raincoat, rainhat, and rainboots, and if I gave Big Mack a rain-outfit identical to that one, it'd be both a shout-out to Fiends and a double-meaning joke, since "Mac" is another term for "raincoat" in England. The other idea I had was that Big Mack could have a camouflage rain poncho, like the one Applejack had in Dragon Quest. (The main reason I don't have Applejack in that poncho in these notes is because it excludes her cowboy hat. I suppose she could have the poncho's hood down and have her cowboy hat on, anyway, but the duster just seems more appropriate for her.) I also didn't have all that much in mind for RD's rain outfit; probably she'd be in a flightsuit that's not that different from that of the Wonderbolts, though it would protect her hair (maybe with a helmet?), and it might be more obviously waterproof, such as having some stitch lines in it, kind of like how Rarity's raincoat/poncho had stitchmarks on it if you look closely. I keep thinking that red should be the dominant color for that-probably because her EoH necklace has a red lightning bolt gem on it.

Speaking of, you may recall how Rainbow Dash was complaining about having to wear a raincoat early-on in the chapter, and she said, "Maybe if I was overly concerned with my looks! Maybe if I was a toddler playing in rain puddles with a rubber ducky!" Those were callbacks to the G-3 and G-3.5 incarnations of Rainbow Dash; I happen to know she had Rarity's personality in G-3. (Don't look at me like that; I've been considering doing a parody of the "Runaway Rainbow" G-3 MLP Movie, so I had to watch it! _That's _how I found out!) As for the G-3.5 incarnation, that's the toddler-playing-in-puddles thing. You see, I was curious as to whether Rarity's raincoat-outfit had been merchandized yet; it seems like the kind of thing they'd cash in on. So I did a google search, and what I found was a G-3.5 toy of Rainbow Dash as a toddler, with a rain poncho and a rubber duck, and a description about playing in puddles. So that's what those lines were references to.

I'd like to add that raincoats aren't the _only_ outfits the mane six got out of their visit to Rarity's boutique: they also got sweaters. And this is a minor spoiler: they'll be wearing them in Canterlot. The sun has been down for a while, and it's gotten pretty chilly. That would give my artists another outfit to get creative with-if I added Appaloosa, Dragon Mountain, Froggy Bottom Bog, or the Diamond Dog Underground back into the story, then I could see additional outfits for each of those levels, too. And I could picture them "remembering" what they'd put on under their raincoats while they were at Rarity's during the scene in Canterlot where they're taking their raincoats off, and that would essentially be another dress-up minigame, albeit one bordered in thought-balloon clouds.

Speaking of clouds, this level mixes about three or four different video game settings tropes together: Bubbly Clouds (named after a cloud-based level from the Kirby games), Slippy Slidey Ice World, _maybe_ Dungeon Town (since you're fighting through the residential and/or commercial districts of Cloudsdale while getting to the town square in the first segment), and Eternal Engine (a mechanical level). I figured the weather factory would have enough gadgetry in it to count as a mechanical level, and I had one idea for a scene where they're jumping from one piston to another to try to get to another part of the factory, but that scene didn't make it into this story. And in adventure games like this one, you just _gotta _have an ice world! Apart from the first episodes of Season 3, we've never really seen a glaciated place in Equestria; even the dragon's mountain from Dragonshy had no snow on it-not in any place where the mane six were climbing, anyway. (The mane six noticing how cold it is doesn't make it an ice world, unfortunately.) But then I thought, "Cloudsdale is high, so I can make that also get cold, and then we have the ice world!" To be honest, I'm a little disappointed that the ice-part of the Cloudsdale level lasted so short; if I make it a game, then I might make the ice-part last longer-perhaps almost until the scene where they're at the top of Cloudsdale, hoping the Princess will send out her radar. I could also have some frost around Canterlot, too, since it's on a high mountain and it's so cold, as an alternative (or supplement?) to combining the Ice and Cloud levels.

You know, it's funny: the cloud levels in games often look like the most peaceful and the most fun places to be, but in this game, the cloud level is more of a storm level. There's a raging thunderstorm gushing down rain the whole time (though for a kiddie game, the rain might be on-and-off), there's thunder and lightning, it's _very_ cold-always near the freezing point if not below it-and just to survive, the mane six need to be carefully bundled up. Actually, that's closer to the real conditions you'd find inside a cloud, at least as far as how cold it is goes. It's almost like chapter 3 was a deconstruction of the Bubbly Clouds trope!

I'd like to add here that the choice about whether to help the children or not decides whether Celestia divulges her fear in the mess hall (because Fluttershy's speech about lying breaks her resolve to keep the secret) or at the summit of Cloudsdale; if she reveals it atop Cloudsdale, Satallion never learns of her phobia, but if she reveals it in the mess hall, Gilda-who isn't seen at all by the mane six or mentioned at that point of the tale-hears it and tells him. Naturally, that makes him change his plans somewhat, and as such you could expect different plot points to come up depending on whether he finds out or not. But the way I've written _this _story, he comes to know it. And it'll still make sense to have it rain at the top of Cloudsdale, even if Satallion has no clue that it's Celestia's phobia; it's actually a pretty clever tactic to use a wind current to recycle rainwater back onto the rain cloud to make it rain even harder-at least, it's clever if the targets you're trying to soak are inside the rain cloud in the first place. So there's still an explanation for why it's still raining all the way up there, even if he never finds out. ...Or I could bring that whole science speech of Twilight's about hail back into it and use that as an excuse to explain it; it kind of sounds like a more efficient means of producing hail than just an updraft.

About the Princess's fear of rain-that's one of the unique things I made up in her backstory (and I'll admit I'm worried Hasbro will have a canonical scene with Celestia and rain and disprove it, but that hasn't happened yet, so whatever-even if they do, I could change her fear to thunder or hail, in principle, and it would all still work). Her phobia was the reason she was almost cuddling Twilight when the drizzle started in Everfree: she was scared, even of that. And she's been ashamed of her phobia all thousand+ years of her life-and she's been ashamed of the fact that she's using the pegasi to control the weather, too. Over the centuries, she's gotten good at bottling up and not showing her emotions, which is kind of a sad thing...

Actually, I have a pretty extensive backstory for her (quite a number of fans do); I'd love to turn it into some kind of a musical stage production (musicals seem to do the best job of conveying emotion of any medium I know). The backstory includes the origin of the Elements of Harmony, Celestia's parents (brother of Commander Hurricane and sister of Princess Platinum), and even the origin of DisQord. Once DisQord was created, he essentially broke nature with his chaotic magic, and the way he was moving the sun and moon was that he created a kind of a dome that absorbed and stored light from both celestial bodies, and then he had a magical focus he could move around on that dome to make it _look_ like he was moving the sun-and he had the same for the moon. The Princess's palace in Everfree Forest (then called Everfree Province) was protected by Starswirl's forcefield, so nature never broke in Everfree. Eventually, Celestia and Luna left the protection of the forcefield to try to find a way to deal with the crisis, but Starswirl specifically told them not to try to fight DisQord directly, but only to gather information. Celestia didn't listen (I characterize her as a brat who gets loads of Character Development along the way), and she got two days straight of torture by lemonade rain for her trouble. Luna stayed hidden the whole time, mostly to obey Starswirl, partly out of fear, and partly because she was waiting for an opportunity to present itself for her to do something. After they recovered from that (somewhat), Celestia and Luna tried again, discovered the Elements (created in the same event that created DisQord-yin and yang, baby), and used them to defeat DisQord. Then the disaster where Luna fell to darkness happened (I'll explain more on that later), and after Celestia exiled her to the moon, Celestia moved out of Everfree Palace to live with her Aunt Platinum in Canterlot, because her aunt was the only family she had left, and there were too many sad memories in her old palace. She allowed nature to reclaim the whole area of Everfree Province, too, since it was pretty much the only area in Equestria that nature _could_ reclaim.

The fact is-this whole thing fits a little _too_ well with the cosmology of Equestria: it explains why Everfree used to be Celestia's home, why it no longer is, and why nature works-well, _naturally _in Everfree, and why nature has to be artificially maintained in the rest of Equestria. Yes, this implies that, if you go far enough away from Equestria, then nature will start to work the way it does in Everfree. That kind of makes sense, too: how would the world work if there were no ponies around to care for it if that _weren't_ the case? Wouldn't every other place on the planet be a barren desert if there weren't pegasi deliberately maintaining the water cycle over them? And yet, there are plenty of places far from Ponydom that aren't deserts.

By the way, when Celestia raises and lowers the sun, it's not the actual ball of space plasma that she's moving: it's just the magical focus DisQord made that she's moving. (This helps to explain why astronomical science in Equestria is basically the same as it is in real life-remember Twilight's report on comets from Owl's Well that Ends Well?) The fact is, they never figured out how to completely remove DisQord's magic to get nature back to normal, so instead, they just adapted to it. Celestia and Luna actually got their cutie marks _as adults _when they realized that they could use their magic to move those magical foci and maintain the day/night cycle; before that, they simply assumed that alicorns like them didn't _get_ cutie marks.

I'd like to add that, in this backstory, Celestia isn't a goddess at all. She's treated like one and called one in a lot of fanworks, and canonically, her name is used in a lot of places where we'd use the word "God" ("thank Celestia!" "with Celestia as my witness...!" "in the name of Celestia!"). But in this backstory, she's not a goddess: she's an extremely powerful enchantress who doesn't age, and she's extremely wise and kind, and there could easily be a picture of her if you looked up "Lawful Good" in a dictionary. But a goddess she ain't: she's the daughter of a plain old pegasus and a plain old unicorn-well, high-ranking ones, but still, nothing _goddess_-level special about them. An alicorn is just a rare genetic possibility when a pegasus and unicorn mate; they're just ponies, and not really gods.

That's a little bit ironic, given the "subversion" I was trying to pull off where the people of Cloudsdale forgave her. Here's why I call it a subversion: in almost every case where God is mentioned in pop culture, the fantasy universes where they fictionalize Him have Him as evil, or as not having humanity's best interests in mind, or they'll even have Satan as good. It's like you can't do anything anymore these days that isn't a parody or a subversion of God being good. For that matter, it's like you can't do anything anymore these days that isn't a parody or subversion something else-_anything_ else! Maybe this is just one facet of the inevitable consequence of people having seen it all before. We _have _had about four thousand years' worth of literature and other forms of fiction, so maybe we _have _seen it all before. But I digress: the scene where the people of Cloudsdale forgive Celestia is actually my own take on the subversion of God. And it's not really blasphemous, either: I asked myself, "What if God were flawed?" I know what some of you are thinking, and yes, if He were flawed, it would take away a lot of the things that make Him God. But hypothetically speaking, wouldn't we all be happier-both God and humanity-if we _forgave _those flaws? I mean, we humans are all happier in the end when we forgive each other's flaws, aren't we? Wouldn't that scale up to cosmic proportions, too? That's what gave me the idea for having Celestia get forgiven, though it's still a little bit ironic that I call this a subversion of the "God is perfect" trope, when she isn't really a goddess in the first place.

It's also dawned on me that, bizarrely, the world of Equestria as I've envisioned it for this fanfic is, technically, atheistic. Celestia isn't a goddess, nor is Luna, and Satallion (and anything like him) isn't really powerful enough to be called a god, either. I use the word "demon" to describe him, but he's quite different from the classical definition of demons in Christianity, and probably different from other faiths' definitions, too. I'm bringing this up because usually authors that identify themselves as Christian (like me) have at least a theistic universe for their works, but this is an exception. I suppose it's worth adding that I hadn't really planned to make this an atheistic setting, or a theistic one, for that matter; the atheistic setting is just how it happened.

Returning to Celestia, there's another thing that really strikes me as heartwarming about that let's-forgive-Celestia scene: it's a crowd that's actually doing the right thing. All too often, when there's a crowd in today's media, they're doing the wrong thing. To some extent, this part of the Chapter was inspired by the work of Protomen, a fan-band that created a rock opera based on the Megaman series. In the chronologically last episode of the rock opera, well, suffice it to say that humanity as a crowd made decisions that were pretty stupid and wrong. And I see crowds doing stupid and wrong things in a lot of other works too, or sometimes even in real life. They're doing a protest over something that isn't wrong (or is arguably not wrong), or they're jumping to conclusions without knowing all the facts (pretending they know all the facts, too), they're rioting and breaking into stores, or they're being sheep who follow the lead of someone who's charismatic, but evil. Not in this story: they're performing a merciful act of love for their benevolent Princess. I like to think that even crowds can act based on intelligence and conscience, and I'm fairly confident that they _can_, both in fiction and in real life (not necessarily "will", but "can"). Even though this fic is closer to the cynical end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism than the canonical series, it's still pretty idealistic.

What gave me the idea for Celestia having that phobia of rain in the first place was her alignment with the sun element: in a lot of people's minds, the sun is the opposite of the rain, so it kind of made sense. (That's hilarious when you think of that astronomically: a giant ball of 10000-to-20+ million degree radioactive plasma 108 times the Earth's diameter is the opposite of colloidal suspensions of ice crystals that fall out of suspension and melt? Ha!) Anyhow, I came up with the elaborate backstory after I imagined Celestia with the phobia; I guess the way I think is just to have things build on themselves-and not necessarily in chronological order, either.

In a lot of ways, this is Celestia's story. We learn more about her in this story than we did in the canonical series (assuming this ever makes canon status; it'd be amazing if it did). So even though it's written from a limited omniscient perspective focusing on Twilight's mind, Celestia is practically the main character-or she's become it in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 will begin focusing on Twilight again, but Celestia will have plenty of focus, herself.

Celestia and Twilight canonically have a very close relationship, and part of Celestia's backstory explains that, too. You see, Celestia found out pretty quickly that, since she didn't age, in every generation, she'd always need to find someone to get close to so that she wouldn't get lonely. She actually founded the school for gifted unicorns so that she could do just that; she'd find a student with just the right personality and talents and make that student her protégé. And then she'd quite deliberately get close to that student so that she'd never forget what it was like to care for another pony, and so that someone would always connect with her and care for her on a deeper level than the rest of her subjects. Yes, she'd outlive them every time and would have to watch them get old and die, but at least with this setup, she'll never be outright alone. And the positive aspect of it all is that, for every pony she's seen get old and die, she's seen a story play out, and gotten to be a part of that story: she's seen a pony get wiser; she's seen that pony's dreams and hopes get worked for and come true; maybe she's seen them fall in love, get married, and have foals; she's seen them have fun and enjoy their work and be happy in life; and even though each of their stories has an ending, it's likely that each story was nevertheless a happy one, so no matter how much death she's had to see, Celestia herself is not an unhappy pony, precisely because she has these apprentices and students at her school. (Go ahead and put all this in one of Celestia's monologues if you make a game adaptation of this before I do :) )

Assuming all this is the case, Celestia has a lot more to be proud of in Twilight than in her previous students: Twilight made fast friends with five other mares, restored her sister to her (the only other pony who'll live forever and be able to keep Celestia company through the centuries, assuming Cadence is mortal), and then saved Equestria two or three more times. (Well...the part at the wedding is more of a kinda-sorta.) I wanted to start showing how proud Celestia is of Twilight and start displaying the love that exists between the two of them in this piece of fanfiction.

And, of course, the way I show that love is to strain it. I've read somewhere that one of the rules of creative writing is "Be a sadist: no matter how sweet and innocent your characters are, make awful things happen to them. That shows what they're made of." I almost feel like Twilight should outright have a complete nervous breakdown: first, she's weighed down by doubts for several hours, and that puts a major strain on her. Then her mentor-whose disapproval is Twilight's greatest fear-screams at Twilight for putting too much pressure on her. Then her mentor shows more weakness than she's ever shown before, and finally she says she's leaving Equestria forever! Of course, Celestia still loves Twilight like a daughter, and Twilight still loves Celestia almost like a second mother-figure, and I figure I'll need a scene early-on in chapter 4 to reaffirm all this and give them both a chance to catch their breath.

To be honest, I think love is the real reason why we're all so hooked on the series. Oh, the classic well-timed cartoony humor and the epic fantasy universe are important-they're the reasons why we came to the series and the reasons we're not ashamed to be called bronies. But I _think_ I read somewhere that Lauren Faust based the personalities of the mane six off of the personalities she gave her own My Little Pony toys when she was playing with them as a kid (I'm not 100% sure about this, though). When a girl gives her toys personalities, what is she creating them for? Her purpose is to love them, to have something to enjoy nurturing, and to _want_ for them to be happy and successful, to _want _for them to have functional relationships and be friends with each other. At their core, the mane six are _made to be loved_. And we do love them, even though we know they're fictional characters. You've probably read a lot of fanfics where the characters enter our world or one of us enters theirs-we write those because, deep down, that's what we _want_! I'd like to add that, if somehow one of these ponies entered our world in real life, I honestly believe that every fan would give every cent in their bank accounts if they thought it would make the difference between them going back to Equestria or being stuck here. (Not that I can imagine how money would solve a problem like that, or how a problem like that could come up in the first place-short of God deciding to pull a prank on us.)

Of course, I say all this while assuming I really did read that Mrs. Faust based these characters off of the characters from her childhood; it may have only been the Ticket Master episode that she based any of the series off of that had anything to do with the games she played with them as a kid. ...I hope I didn't imagine that either, or else I'm going to be pretty embarrassed...

Anyhow...Celestia has a dark secret like in most fanfiction, but it's not as dark as most: it's that she hid the real past of Equestria from the populace, and she's been using the pegasi for centuries-or at least she thinks she has been. I suppose she was, but the way Equestria works wouldn't have been any different if Celestia hadn't had that phobia: the fact is, DisQord broke nature so thoroughly that the pegasi would've _had _to manage the weather to keep the ecosystem running, anyway. (Water can't even evaporate on its own: _that's_ how broken it is! See the Hurricane Fluttershy episode for why I say it can't evaporate.) Really, the alternative would've been for all the ponies to move out of Equestria after DisQord messed it up, and Equestria had such fertile soil and abundant natural resources that nopony wanted to leave. ...Actually, giving Celestia such a forgivable sin also makes this soft enough to be worthy of a children's video game. You practically need to be an adult to even understand why it was wrong in the first place.

The one fly in the ointment as far as making this an actual children's video game goes is the name of the game itself (see my Chapter 4 notes for more on that *shudder*), and the villain. He's called _Satallion_, for crying out loud! It's hard (though not quite impossible) for me to imagine the Hasbro execs approving a game like that. I half-expect I'll need to make him a female antagonist and rename him Mephistofilly. It could still work, but I'd probably have to recharacterize her so she's a brat on top of being spiteful; Satallion in this work is a cold, calculating tyrant, who always does what hurts his enemies the most, and is more than capable of pulling off elaborate plans. Switching to a villain that's a complete childish brat and maybe something of a Butt Monkey (i.e. someone who's hilarious to watch lose) might be better for a children's game- it would make the work lose some of its edge, but it would likely be worth it-besides, it _needs_ to lose some edge!

One thing about this story that I might like to change if I made this into a video game: give Satallion/Mephistofilly a much more in-your-face-from-the-beginning role in the plot. There are video games where the main antagonist isn't apparent until close to the end, like Kingdom Hearts 1 or The Burning Crusade expansion to WoW, and then the creators of those games later decided that their villains should be more apparent and an imposing presence right from the beginning, so in Kingdom Hearts 2 and Wrath of the Lich King, they made the main villain(s) appear early and often. Maybe I should have Satallion/Mephistofilly appear early and often, too? I dunno.

While I hadn't intended this in the first place, I've noticed that there are different alignments to the different villains the mane six have faced. You could make the case that Nightmare Moon was Lawful Evil-she wanted to be the ruling princess, after all. DisQord was obviously Chaotic Evil to the maximum possible extent of the Chaotic part (to the point where I could see him retooled as a Chaotic Neutral anti-hero if they really wanted to take him in that direction). Queen Chrysalis-probably Lawful Evil again, since she was also a ruling monarch, and wanted to extend her rule. Same with King Sombra. But Satallion-he's Neutral Evil. All he cares about is gaining power over the living ponies (not political power; puppet-master-like power-and _worse_! Keep reading to see why I say "worse") and about making his enemies miserable. Really, he couldn't care less about order versus chaos. His real motivations and origins haven't yet been explained; I'll make every effort to explain them in the next chapter or two.

I'd like to add that, while Satallion is a very intelligent villain who is good at manipulating the emotions of his targets, he is _not_ supposed to be what they'd call a "Magnificent Bastard" on . A Magnificent Bastard is someone, almost always a villain, who is extremely intelligent, excellent at making sneaky plans, excellent at manipulating other people into doing what he wants them to do-and to cap it all off, they do it all with such style that you have to admire them, even if you hate them. Satallion was _not_ made to be admired; he's made to inspire righteous anger in the reader. You don't just love to hate him: you conscience fervently _approves_ your hatred of him. He's pure evil. He'd better the world by his absence. The only thing "magnificent" about him is how magnificent the heroes will look by destroying him! To that end, I suppose that his being Neutral Evil was intended from the start, but the contrast with Lawful and Chaotic Evil wasn't something I had intended from the start.

Another theme that's starting to come together, which I again didn't intend, was that small choices can have huge consequences. The option of escorting Zecora back to Ponyville decides whether Celestia has a raincoat or not, the option of bringing the children towels and blankets decides whether Satallion knows about Celestia's weakness or not. Probably there'll be other decisions that have a lot of consequences, too, though they probably won't show up in this narrative. I do believe that small choices can have big consequences in real life as well (they sometimes call that the Butterfly Effect), but really, I didn't start writing this with that theme in mind-I guess it was just an excuse to let me make the plot split up. I knew that, if this was going to be a game, I'd want to have a branching plot that lets you add in optional characters; one thing I had considered was that, if you cause too much of a delay for yourself before the start of chapter 3 by making too many choices that delay you (escorting Zecora, stopping at Rarity's to get raincoats, etc.), then the Cloudsdale storm reaches Ponyville before you get to Cloudsdale, Ponyville gets re-corrupted, and Big Mack becomes a boss you have to fight before you can get to Cloudsdale. That's just one example of a branching plotline, but it's not the only way Big Mack could become a playable character-exploration at Sweet Apple Acres in chapter 1 might do it, too.

Speaking of optional characters, I was actually thinking that Soarin would be a good optional character, despite his miniscule screentime. He'd probably be something like a more powerful but slightly slower version of Rainbow Dash, _maybe_ having a different attack, like using the storm clouds he leaves behind for an attack instead of using tornadoes. There are a couple of reasons for that: first of all, we need more male playable characters. Second, it would be awesome in my mind to Joss all the fans who think RD is a lesbian by creating a romantic subplot between Soarin and Dash. ...Please don't interpret that as homophobia. Actually, it might not be a good idea, in any case: we just had a subplot with RD where she was angsting about being seen in a raincoat; giving her another subplot would be kind of unbalancing.

On the subject of balance, I'm trying to give each of the mane six a roughly equal number of lines, Twilight being an exception. I don't want any one pony to be too quiet, otherwise we might forget she's there, and that shouldn't happen. I find myself making Fluttershy the quietest; I've actually gone through these chapters several times before releasing them on , and I sometimes find myself changing some lines so she's saying them instead of someone else, or giving Rarity an additional line, just to keep things a little more balanced and remind the reader (and myself) that they're still there.

...I could go on with these author's notes forever, couldn't I? I hope they're not completely boring, and that they turn out to be useful if someone beats me to the punch in making this into an actual game. Or that they're an entertaining read in their own right.

I _certainly_ hope no one at says "This ; not ! Delete those author's notes, or we'll delete your fic!" Really, this fic is intended to be easy to adapt into a video game, and there's plenty more that goes into a video game besides the raw plot and dialog; I'm hoping to supply some of that other stuff with these notes, so really, they're nearly as important to this fic as the actual events and characters. That's how I see it; the people who run can see it howsoever they choose. And if they insist on it, I'll look for somewhere else to put these author's notes-with no grudges, either: they are still providing a multitude of fandoms with a lot of excellent services.

I'd like to add that the latest change I've made to this chapter is the addition of a few lines just as the mane six enter the weather factory, describing how creepy the inside of the weather factory really is. It may seem like I'm being OCD again by adding such a small change, but there's a reason for it: at the time I write this, I have, only a few hours ago, heard WoodenToaster/Glaze's "Rainbow Factory" song. An instrumental version of that (maybe even one with lyrics) would be the PERFECT background music for the Eternal Engine segment of Cloudsdale, when the mane six are in the weather factory. Except that, when you listen to the first few measures, there are some very low, very creepy, very badass vibes to that music. That makes it perfect for a brony who wants an old-school platformer, but potentially scary for a six-year-old girl who just wants to play a My Little Pony video game. You have to keep that little girl in mind if you want to make an MLP game, and those lines where Fluttershy declares she's afraid are actually my way of handling that: by having a character in the game feel the same way as the player, and then get comforted by the other characters, I have, by proxy, comforted the player. You need to keep the emotions and moods of the player in mind when you're creating plot twists or setting up the music for a level or choosing up colors for how a level is going to look; keeping those kinds of things in mind is what distinguishes a good game from a great game-heck, keeping those kinds of things in mind is important for just about ANY entertainment medium. I'd give you some examples of how they do this in FiM, but these author's notes are already twelve pages long; I think I need to stop. ...It's like, a third of the length of the chapter! Yeesh…

_Deleted paragraphs, coming as Twilight is having her breakdown just after Celestia yelled at her atop Cloudsdale-I later decided I wanted her breakdown to be more dramatic and convey more of a shell-shocked vibe. Maybe I have her recovering from it a little too well, but then again, in real life, Rick Gore (horsemanship expert) says every 11 seconds is a new day for a horse, so maybe recovering from shock well is just another thing that makes them ponies._

_In any case, here are the deleted paragraphs:_

But she could feel, and she felt like the right thing to do was to keep loving her mentor, so she took the Princess's spirit orb between her hooves and rubbed her cheek against it. Twilight slowly began sobbing, herself, knowing that her mentor knew and felt the same kinds of anxieties she felt time and again when she knew she _couldn't _do something that she _had _to do.

It felt awful to be sitting in the rain, cold and terrified, knowing that those she cared about most were hurting and in danger, and there was _nothing_ she could do about it. It felt downright hopeless, almost as if she were suffering in the grim, dark afterlife, herself: abandoned by everything that's good to feel rotten forever. Alone.

..._But I'm not alone_, Twilight thought to herself. _Applejack...Rainbow Dash...Fluttershy...Rarity...Pinkie...they're all here, too. They're scared, just like I am. And the Princess is here, too. We're __**all**__ suffering...together._

Somehow, knowing that she wasn't alone, even if she was in hell, was comforting to Twilight. It was as if there would always be a little comfort, a little part of her that couldn't be touched by the darkness-just like her raincoat and sweater were keeping her dry and warm in the rain. So it dawned on Twilight that it wasn't true that there was _no_ hope at all. There was some.


	4. Chapter 4: Family Reunion

Chapter 4:

The next thing Twilight knew, they were in Canterlot Castle, inside the Princess's bedchamber. The windows had thick, magical bars blocking them, and the door had been magically sealed. It was clear the Princess had previously barricaded herself in to keep herself safe from the corruption.

There was a maid inside the bedchamber, keeping herself wrapped in a heavy blanket-that made Twilight notice that it wasn't much warmer in the bedchamber than it had been in the weather factory. It was hard for Twilight to tell at first that it was so cold; she was still bundled up under a raincoat and a sweater, but then she realized she could see her own breath.

The maid bowed and sheepishly said, "I apologize, milady, but the supply of coal is gone! When it began to get cold and you told me to stay in here, I lit a fire, but I didn't know whether or when you would be back, and...before I knew it, I-"

"It's all right, Sundancer," Celestia assured her. "Has anything happened since I left?"

"No, milady," the maid answered. "Some of the pegasus royal guards tried to break in through the window, but the bars held. They stopped trying and left when I got out of their sight. Beyond that, there hasn't been a whisper."

"Good. I'm going to send out a detection spell and wait here for the spell to return."

"Is there anything I can do for you, milady?"

"Yes: fetch us some towels. Twilight and her friends got soaked in Cloudsdale."

"Right away, Milady!"

As Sundancer scurried off to another room to get towels, Celestia knelt down and looked Twilight in the eyes-she was scanning Twilight, but what she was looking for, Twilight didn't know. But what Twilight did know was that something was troubling Celestia.

"What's wrong, Princess?" Twilight asked.

"I've...run out of tears, Twilight," Celestia softly answered.

"Me, too," Twilight admitted.

"I'm sorry, Twilight-I knew how much our friendship means to you, and I still-!" Celestia stopped talking and just looked at the floor sadly.

Twilight couldn't think what to say, so she just snuggled next to the Princess-she must be the cold one, now! It was a cold, cold night, and she had no cloak! She slowly spread her wing over Twilight, and they again just stared into each other's eyes. Twilight could see nothing but tiredness, sorrow, guilt, and love in her mentor's eyes, and but she could only wonder what Celestia saw in hers. Probably concern, maybe fatigue-she'd been fighting all day, and...well, she still did feel more than a little shocked from their adventure in Cloudsdale. Twilight had hardly thought about what she was feeling, anymore-she'd been so concerned about what the Princess was feeling; her terror, her suffering, her guilt-her rage. Twilight hadn't thought about her own feelings since the forest.

And she _shouldn't _think about them now: she _should _think about the Princess. She'd been through so much; was the Princess getting too tired to go on? Did they need a rest? Twilight had needed a rest back in Everfree Forest-but then, the Princess could get her rest in spirit form, too, so maybe they could keep fighting, even while-

"Twilight, how are you feeling?" the Princess asked.

"I...I'm a little tired, but I can keep going," Twilight answered.

"...That's how your body feels. But how do _you_ feel?"

Twilight remembered that those were the same words she'd used on Pinkie a few hours ago. She answered, "I...I'm still a little shell-shocked, I guess...I'm really, _really _glad you're not going anywhere. But...most of all, I feel worried about you, right now."

"I'm mostly worried about you too, Twilight. I've put you through far more than I should have. First I scream at you, and then I say I'm going to leave you forever...even when I know how much our relationship means to you."

Sundancer saw that this was a precious moment, so she set the towels down on the bed and slipped back out of sight. Celestia picked a towel up with her magic and began wiping the rainwater off of Twilight's slicker, before drying herself off from all the snuggling she'd been doing with her drenched student.

"I can see that you're _very_ weary at heart," Celestia continued, "And...it's my fault you are. I'm sorry for doing this to you, Twilight."

"I forgive you for that, too, Princess," Twilight said without hesitation. "Please...is...is there a way we can all just stop being so sad?"

Pinkie interrupted, "She's right! I keep saying it, but nopony _listens _to me: _why _do we have to be _sad_!? We all care about each other, we're all here-what's there to be sad about?!"

Celestia was silent, staring at Pinkie's orb for a moment, then she chuckled lightly. "You're right, Pinkie; you're right." She gave Twilight a happy nuzzle.

For a moment, Twilight saw the simple, merciful wisdom in what Pinkie was saying, and she recalled how she admired and loved that soothing, simple wisdom her friends had shown her back in Everfree forest-but then Twilight suddenly remembered another, terrifying thought that had occurred to her in the forest-one she'd not really gotten away from: the fear that the emotional roller-coaster wouldn't stop. Immediately after her friends had assured her that her doubts were unneeded (and, in some cases, silly), they'd had to fight through the torrential storms of Cloudsdale-and far, _far_ worse than that, she'd almost lost her beloved Princess! Just when she thought things couldn't get any worse, they _did_. And they now had a little time to catch their breaths, so it was just about time for things to get worse-probably far worse than Twilight could now imagine!

"Twilight, didn't you hear what I just said?!" Pinkie asked grouchily. Apparently, Twilight's face had given away that she was thinking about something that was both horrifying and saddening.

She decided to try to put what she was feeling into words again. "Every time something good happens to us...something else that's _awful _happens right afterwards! We finally feel better after resting up in the forest, and then Ponyville's under attack, and then the storm comes, and the Princess is scared, and...and-! You remember what I said in the forest about how the emotional roller-coaster just won't stop? Well...it hasn't stopped! And I don't think it will. And I'm feeling...I'm wondering...well...how much more of it can I take? I'm scared; I don't know what'll happen when I run out of strength, but...I know it won't be good."

Celestia grew sad and nuzzled Twilight again. "_Terrible _things happen when you run out of strength; I learned that not two hours ago. When I ran out of strength...I screamed at you and hurt your heart more than I _dare_ imagine. But...I don't think you _will_ run out of strength, Twilight-you haven't run out yet. _And_...your emotional roller-coaster ends _now_."

The Princess said that very firmly, as if she was convinced it was true, and determined to _make_ it true-but how could she be sure? "_Will _it?"

"_Yes, it will_," Celestia insisted. "You made a promise that you wouldn't let what the corruption does get to you, so the corruption can't touch you. And in Cloudsdale, the problem was _me_. The rain and the cold, and even your own town being in danger-you were prepared for all of that, and it wouldn't have slowed you down: _I_ did. And I'm promising you right here and now, Twilight, that I am _done_ making you tired and scared." Celestia paused and smiled. "It felt _very _good to say that, Twilight. Say, Pinkie, what was that special promise you and your friends have?"

"The Pinkie-promise?" Pinkie asked.

"Remind me again, how does it go? Cross my heart and hope to die-"

"Fly."

"..._fly_, stick a cupcake in my eyEEEEEE!" Celestia screamed the word "eye" because she had accidentally stuck her own hoof in her eye-gemmed shoe and all.

After an awkward silence, Twilight finally said, "I did that my first time, too."

Celestia smiled, scooped Twilight up in her hooves, and held her close to her chest. She belted out a laugh that Twilight hadn't quite heard before, but it seemed like a wonderful laugh. "Oh, Twilight, we have so many feelings we're going to need to sort through and decide what to do with once all this is done, but I'm glad at least some of them are happy. And we will need to do something about them...but...I'm not worried, because I know this much: when it's all over, we'll all still be friends."

Twilight loved being this close to the Princess, and hearing her happy was a very refreshing thing after everything they'd been through.

Twilight hugged her mentor back and said, "You know...I'd wish this moment could last forever...if it weren't for the fact that all of Canterlot is-"

Loud clinking of metal against metal and angry snorting interrupted Twilight's sentence, but it was apparent that she was about to talk about this very thing: several corrupted royal guards were again trying to break into Celestia's chambers through the bars.

Celestia frowned. "I'll say this about Satallion: he's got perfect timing!" She quickly wove her radar spell and frowned again. "Ohhh...I should've sent that out the moment we arrived, but I-!" She looked down at Twilight. "I did the right thing," she quietly finished.

"Those bars will keep them out...right, Princess?" Fluttershy asked.

"They'll hold. Don't worry." She added, "Once the radar comes back, we'll have to set out and fight immediately. If there's anything we need to do to prepare, we should do it now."

Twilight began taking off her dried raingear and stuffing it into her saddlebag. "Let's keep these; you never know if they'll be useful, again."

"There's a scary thought," Celestia moaned. Twilight could well imagine that she was hoping that all the rain was behind her; Twilight knew the feeling of hoping something was behind her all too well.

One by one her five friends switched out and stuffed their raingear into their saddlebags, keeping their sweaters on to keep warm in the chilly night. Rarity was the last out, and she let out a little gasp. "Princess...you need something to keep you warm, too!"

"I'll just stay in spirit-"

Rarity interrupted: "_That _was the plan in Cloudsdale, and it didn't work out. I don't want to make the same mistake twice, and I know ex-_act_-ly what to do! Sundancer, is there are spare blanket in here?"

Sundancer came out from where she was hiding, carrying a blanket with her magic. Rarity quickly took the blanket and, using some surprising twists and knots, she quickly fashioned a large hooded cloak for Celestia. Celestia smiled. "Thank you, Rarity-I hadn't realized how cold it was until you put it on."

"I hope it serves you well, Princess."

At that moment, the radar came back. Celestia stared at the glowing orb for a few seconds, then said, "The southern district, near the borders of the city. We need to get moving."

Twilight thought aloud, "Will it be safer for us to teleport there, or should we go along the ground?"

After pondering the question for a moment, Celestia answered, "Either choice is dangerous. If we teleport, then Satallion won't see us coming, but he'll likely have many troops stationed around the core to defend it, and we won't know what we're up against until we see it. If we go along the ground, he'll see us coming, but we'll have a better chance of seeing what we're up against."

Twilight thought about it for a moment. "I wish I could say 'we're not taking any chances,' but the only choice we have is which chance _to_ take...Let's go on foot. I'd rather not teleport into something I don't know about.

"But before we go," Twilight added, "Let's uncorrupt those guards." Twilight switched out, fired as many arrows as she could at the seething guards as they railed against the magical bars, and uncorrupted all of them. Celestia moved the bars so that the guards were inside them, and told them, "Stay here, and don't let corrupted ponies touch you-if they do, the corruption will spread back into you. And don't worry; my plan to rid Equestria of this evil is already well underway!"

Celestia teleported herself and Twilight to the balcony, and Celestia went back into spirit form. Twilight braced herself for more running around and fighting, then looked down over the balcony and switched out with Rainbow Dash.

Dash flew to the ground, and it wasn't long before more guards were upon them-all of them were pegasi or earth ponies, which made Twilight wonder where the unicorn guards were. Twilight switched out and did her best to uncorrupt as many of the guards as possible. But there was a problem: instead of running away when they were cured, the guards immediately obeyed their training and tried to fight the other corrupted guards. That only served to quicken the corruption's spread. Twilight shouted to the guards, "Don't try to fight them; _run_! You'll lead them away from me, and then I can work on the Princess's plan to stop the corruption!"

The guards didn't need to be told twice by their Princess's protégé; they ran, and took the herd of corrupted ponies with them.

Twilight began running through the courtyard towards the castle gate, and now servants from the castle began rushing at them-butlers, janitors, ladies-in-waiting, gardeners, maids-all of them rushed at her. Fortunately, they didn't have the same battle training that the guards did: when a few of them were uncorrupted, they ran away and took the herd with them. Twilight felt like she really had the hang of it.

She rushed toward the gate and found it locked tight. Of course, she couldn't use her magic to open it, so she instead shouted, "Fluttershy, you fly us over this gate-get ready to send your animals out and get us a diversion."

Fluttershy switched out nervously, and when she had gathered a small flock of birds, she slowly peeked up over the gate, and saw the streets filled with corrupted unicorns-some of them guards, some of them nobles, but most of them just the common residents of Canterlot. Fluttershy gulped, and it was so quiet in the streets that her gulp echoed all over the city. Every head turned towards her and glared darkly. "Um..._hi_?" Fluttershy nervously said.

The unicorns charged the gate and began smacking it with all their collective magical might, but it wasn't enough to break the gate down. Fluttershy apparently decided to be brave, because she sent her birds away, and they cheeped and sung in-flight as loudly as they could. Every head turned as the birds flew overhead, and then the whole herd rushed away as one after them.

Rainbow Dash quickly switched out and flew to the south as fast as she was able. As they were flying, Twilight thought aloud, "This is where I grew up as a filly...at least the corruption hasn't redecorated the place while we were gone...!"

"Your parents live around here?" Applejack asked. "I met 'em at yer brother's wedding...it's sad to think _they_ might be..."

"Let's _not _think about it," Twilight said aloud, just as she was pushing the thought of them being corrupted out of her head. "But...yes, they do live around here." The thought seemed to nag Twilight as she recalled that _nothing_ was too low the corruption: it had already tried freezing them to death, capitalizing on Celestia's phobia, and saying exactly the right things to get under Twilight's, Rainbow Dash's, and Pinkie Pie's skins. Doing something nasty with her parents-that was, unfortunately, right up the corruption's alley.

But what would it try? Making them yell at her that they never loved her? ...That would be disturbing, but easy to get over; Twilight knew full well by now that it would be a lie. Twilight had half a feeling that something far worse than that was on the horizon, but she pushed the thought aside before it overwhelmed her and tried to stay focused.

She asked, "Princess, where exactly is the core?"

"The reading came from very near the outskirts of town, almost at the edge, which seems very odd. At that location, there would be parts of Canterlot that would be outside the effective radius of the core; it doesn't make any _sense_ to put one there."

"Unless," Rarity thought aloud, "There's more than one of them in Canterlot...!"

"Satallion ain't done _that_ yet," Applejack added. "If he's usin' more than one core, it's because he's got somethin' _special_ in mind for Canterlot. I don't like the sound of that!"

More corrupted ponies began rushing out at them and charging them. They couldn't keep up with Rainbow, but they were appearing in front of her as well as behind her. She tried using her tornadoes, but they could only knock the ponies back so far before they began coming at her again.

Fluttershy switched out and sent more birds out. The whole crowd began chasing after the uncorrupted birds, and Twilight switched out and uncorrupted the stragglers that were still after them.

As the final enemies cleared away, Twilight looked around. They were pretty close to the edge of the city, close to one of the many cliffs that dropped straight down to the valleys below. And they were fairly close to the neighborhood where her parents lived, too. But there was no core in sight. "Should we start checking the buildings, yer Highness?" Applejack asked.

"I'm afraid that might be necessary," Celestia sighed.

"Nuts! The corruption's getting _smarter_!" Pinkie Pie moaned. "Hiding the core in a plain old regular pony's house is the _perfect_ way to keep us from finding it! There's so _many_ of them that we'll have to look at-it'll take _forever_!"

"They may have other tricks for keeping it hidden as well; I've been trying to sense the core's general location, but so far, I keep getting the east side of Canterlot. That _could_ be the other core's location if there are two in Canterlot, but...I should at least be able to sense _this _core if it's nearby."

"Um...you don't think maybe the core, uh...moved?" Fluttershy asked.

"If they've attached a core to a cloud and have a pegasus moving it," Rarity thought aloud, "they could do that. They did it with Cloudsdale, but...how big across is Canterlot?"

"About six miles across," Twilight answered.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "I don't think a pegasus team pushing a cloud could cover five miles in the fifteen minutes it took to get to here from the castle."

"They could be using some kind of stealth magic to keep this core hidden," Celestia suggested. "If only there were some safe place where I could send out the radar again; then we could narrow it down-even if we didn't know _exactly_ which house the core was in, we'd probably have our choice of two or three-"

"_TWIIIILIIIIGHT!_"

The loud roar of two unicorns bellowed from the very edge of the cliff. The dark, booming voice of Satallion echoed through their voices, but something familiar was in them as well. Twilight tried to stifle the thought that they might be her parents, but turned her head in dread-and it _was_ her parents!

She slowly walked closer to her mother and father, both of them standing very near the cliffs, eyes blazing red, and starting at her darkly.

Twilight snorted, trying to steel her heart against whatever she'd be put through this time. "Look," she insisted, "It doesn't matter what you say; I'll _know _it's a lie!"

Satallion chuckled back. It was strange and unnerving to hear that laugh out of her parents' mouths-while they were still glaring at her so angrily. "This isn't about what I _say_, unicorn. It's about what I'm about to make your parents _do_. The Spell of Unity may protect _you_ from death, but it _doesn't_ protect your parents. And it's a long way down from this cliff."

Twilight's face went pale at the thought.

Satallion didn't slow down; he struck while the iron was hot. "Terrifying, isn't it: these two ponies who you love and cherish, gone forever! _That _is what I will do to you unless you disband the Spell of Unity and surrender to me-_unconditionally_!"

For a moment, Twilight was too scared to think. She realized after a few seconds that she _should_ be thinking of something, _anything_, that might get her mom and dad out of this!

"Why are you even fighting against me?" Satallion continued. "Name _one _objective problem that my so-called 'corruption' creates. It doesn't hurt the health of those who have it-if anything, it makes them more active. It doesn't disrupt your economy or weather. It doesn't prevent you from having children, or from eating or producing food. What possible motive do you have to fight me? Besides, it's not really that bad to be 'corrupted', anyway. Don't be so afraid to give in."

Twilight actually began to believe Satallion for a moment, then remembered that Ponyville was hit with a super-storm on account of the corruption, so it _did_ negatively impact the weather. He'd negatively impact _anything_-the economy, health, nature itself-if it would help him get to them. And while the ability to love your family, friends, and neighbors might not be an objective benefit, it was still worth fighting for.

So Twilight _was _afraid to give in...but could she watch her parents fall to their deaths? Her nerves were already frayed, and her heart was _so_ tired...would this make her run out of strength? If she did, wouldn't Satallion win? So...either way, Satallion had already won. ...Unless Twilight had the strength within her to keep fighting, even with her parents dead.

Twilight didn't like the sound of that, but she made her mind up that she would have the strength. She was scared, tired, and very, very hurt. But she wouldn't give up; she'd find the strength within her.

"I'm a patient demon," Satallion continued, "I can wait for your answer for a _long_ time." After a pause, Satallion laughed. "Or are you _actually_ thinking about sacrificing your parents? What a _ruthless_ move that would be! Would you really be that different from me if you chose that? Oh, it makes a kind of sense: they're older than you, and you will probably one day outlive them and have to bury them. Why delay the inevitable? Why not just let them perish at _my_ command, rather than waiting for time itself to claim them, as it does _all_ mortals?"

Twilight hated the sound of what Satallion was saying, precisely because it made an abominable kind of sense. It was a hard choice; if she gives in, she'll be filled with hate and become just like Satallion. If she doesn't, then she sacrifices her parents-an action that takes a _special _kind of coldness of heart. A coldness of heart that's not unlike that of Satallion. Had Satallion already won, just by presenting Twilight with this choice?

Satallion interrupted Twilight's thoughts with another cruel laugh. "Just make sure your parents don't die of _starvation _before they die of their fall."

Twilight scowled. She didn't want to resign herself to the fate of losing her parents, and began to realize that another part of having strength is to refuse to resign yourself to any despair-she decided that she'd use the time she had to think of something, _anything_, to save her parents.

But the fact that she had this time made Twilight wonder: just _why_ was he giving her so much time to decide? Was he trying to drag things out with more suspense? ...The suspense was painful, but less painful than actually losing her parents would've been. And Satallion _always_ goes for _the_ most painful thing that he can do; when he had the choice between causing Celestia pain by maintaining the storm and setting her back by sending pegasus troops after her, he chose pain over practicality. So why hadn't he already sent her parents over the cliff? Would forcing Twilight to surrender be more painful than watching her parents go over the edge? ...Twilight realized that that wouldn't be more painful for her, and she briefly was tempted to give in for that very reason. But she stopped herself: it would be more painful to see her parents die, but that didn't make it the right choice. Besides, she can't love anypony while she's corrupted, and, as ruthless as it might sound, what good were her parents-or anything, for that matter-if she didn't have the ability to love them? It was true, but it was a sickening thought on so many levels.

Wait-not having the _ability_...? _What if _Satallion hadn't sent her parents over the edge because he plain and simple _didn't have the ability to do so_? ...Twilight recalled how, when they were fighting Rainbow Dash, Satallion never had her run away from them. Having her run away would've been the most intelligent _and_ painful solution; without her, the Elements of Harmony would be incomplete, and they wouldn't have been able to make any progress against Satallion-they'd have had to watch him get more and more powerful, and they'd have been helpless to do anything to stop him. _That_ would've been extremely painful. And Satallion had to have known by then what keeping Rainbow Dash away from them would've done, both to them and their efforts. And while he _had_ sent crowds of pegasi after them in Cloudsdale, he had never been able to direct the _specific_ movements of his thralls-not even when he could've used them to strike a decisive blow that would've won him this war forever. As powerful as his magic was, he hadn't yet displayed any ability to command his troops directly. So he probably didn't even have the ability to make good on his threat, as strange as it sounded.

The one difference between the fight with Rainbow Dash and this conversation was that Twilight had been actively fighting the corrupted Rainbow Dash, but she hadn't yet begun to fight her parents. So, just in case being in combat had anything to do with it, Twilight fired an arrow at each of her parents.

Just as Twilight had hoped, they charged, rushing towards her-and, most importantly, _away_ from the cliff. As they charged, they roared, "Fine. I'll make your own parents pound you into the dust until you are in so much pain, you'll _wish_ I would finish you! _THEN_ I will send your parents over the cliff!"

Twilight's stomach tied itself in knots at the thought that Satallion might be telling the truth. The rational thing to do, if he had the ability to send her parents over the edge, would be to send them over before she could uncorrupt either parent. But maybe he was acting _irrationally_! Twilight tried to push the thoughts aside and focus on the battle; she knew her parents were both powerful with their magic, so she didn't know quite what to expect.

In some ways, the battle felt like fighting two Trixies: they used the same wave-magic that Trixie, the Manticore, and Gilda had used, and were also able to fire arrows of darkness back at Twilight. She did her best to dodge and kept firing arrows at her parents.

It dawned on her that this was also like fighting the Cakes; as soon as she managed to uncorrupt one of them, the other could re-corrupt him or her. She didn't want that to happen here, but she realized she had a lot more combat options available to her this time, because all her friends were there. _And_ she'd learned her lessons from before.

So she tried to avoid shooting either of her parents too much more than she was shooting the other; she made a point of getting them both close to uncorrupted, but not quite there. Then she shouted, "Applejack! Use your earth pound!"

Applejack switched out, got as close as she could to Twilight's parents, and pounded the ground. The impact stunned both parents and knocked them a little bit backward. Twilight quickly switched out and finished uncorrupting both her parents.

Twilight felt the adrenaline and suspense drain from her system as a wave of relief swept over her: she had _won_ that fight, that conversation, and both her parents were _still alive_! And she had successfully proven to herself that, even when Satallion presents her with a difficult choice, she could find a third option and get herself and her loved ones out of danger. That lesson alone was _incredible_ relief to her, almost as much relief as seeing her parents' eyes return to normal. They looked like they were full of regret, but that was a wound that could be easily healed, especially in comparison to what her family had been threatened with.

"Twilight...we're so sorry!" her mother began.

"Don't worry," Twilight insisted, rushing in for a hug. "It's over."

After a few seconds, Rainbow Dash spoke up: "_Wow_, Twilight...you must have nerves of _steel _if you've got what it takes to fight when Satallion has your parents on the edge of a cliff!"

"I _don't_ have nerves of steel _at all_," Twilight insisted-probably a little more grouchily than she should have. Hoping her tone alone would correct it, she continued softly, "I realized that Satallion _couldn't_ make good on his threats; we've done a lot of fighting against corrupted ponies, and _never once _has he actually given them specific marching orders. So I figured it just wasn't one of his abilities to actually send Mom and Dad over the cliff."

"You mean his threats were empty _all along_?!" Rarity gasped.

"That big. Dumb. _MEANIE_!" Fluttershy roared.

They heard a snort behind them, and saw more unicorns charging them. Twilight's parents immediately combined their magical might and put a force field up, one that looked almost exactly like the force fields Shining Armor or Twilight herself often used. The corrupted unicorns rammed into the force field, but Twilight's parents made sure it held.

The force field left them trapped, but safe. At the very least, it gave them time to think. So Twilight thought, trying to remember what they had been doing-then she realized that there was supposed to be a core nearby, and they needed a safe place to send the radar out from to find where it was specifically. But her parents' force field was _just_ the safe place they needed!

"Princess, the radar! We can send it out from here!" Twilight thought aloud.

Celestia switched out quickly and sent her radar spell out. Twilight's parents were surprised to see her, but she whispered, "Don't bow; concentrate on keeping the force field sturdy."

Twilight turned to her parents and nuzzled them again. "Mom, Dad...this might be the last chance I get to talk with you. I'm so glad I got to see you, and...and...it _was_ scary to see him make you stand on that cliff...I almost gave in to him, but...I didn't." Unable to think what more to say, she just said, "I love you guys."

"We love you, too, Twilight," her father answered, kissing her forehead. "We've missed you a lot since you moved to Ponyville, but we know you've really put down roots and found your place there."

"We're so proud of you," her mother added.

Twilight just stood there with her head nestled between her parents' heads for a moment. It felt good to be surrounded by so much love, even if there were unicorns smashing against the force field all around them. Twilight almost felt like her heart was beginning to heal; she'd been through a lot, but just being around her parents gave her hope: it was enough to let her know that, even though she'd been through so much, it was nothing that being surrounded by love couldn't fix.

After a few minutes, her mother finally said, "Please, Twilight-tell us what's going on! You're with the Princess, and you said something about doing a lot of fighting...you must know something!"

"Oh, where do I even begin?! ...This corruption is evil magic that's been cast on all of Equestria by this demon named Satallion. He's trying to take over Equestria with it, but it has weaknesses. The Princess realized what was happening, and she cast this Spell of Unity on me and my friends from Ponyville so that we'll be immune to it. The Spell of Unity usually only allows one of us to be in physical form at a time; the rest of us are in spirit form. There's exceptions to that; the Princess can switch out whenever she likes without affecting the six of us, and she can pull all of us into physical form for a few minutes so that we can use the Elements of Harmony.

"And we need the Elements to destroy these magical core-things that the corruption relies on; if a core is destroyed, then all the ponies in the same city as that core will be freed from the corruption. We're trying to find Canterlot's core now using the Princess's radar spell. About twenty minutes ago, it told us the core was here, but when we got here, we couldn't find it right away, so we're using the radar again to see if we can narrow it down."

Celestia shook her head. "If the core were within a mile of here, the radar would've come back, by now."

Applejack asked, "I don' know much about magic, but d'ya s'pose Satallion's figured out how to make yer spell lie to us?"

"I'm not sure," Celestia admitted, "But those cores give off a great deal of negative energy; it would be impossible to conceal one."

"Wait...Mom, your special talent is detecting and analyzing magic; maybe you can help us figure out which is the real core?"

She nodded. "I'm familiar with radar spells; I'll take a look when the spell comes back. But we'll need to wait for it to come back from all the different places in Canterlot before we can be certain."

After a few more minutes, the radar returned. Twilight's mother walked up to it and checked it over. "This looks like it's picked up a _massive_ negative energy signature. I think this is the real thing, but let's wait and see."

Several mintues later, Celestia finally said, "If there were anything else in Canterlot for the radar to pick up, it would've come back by now. So this signal is _definitely_ where the core is."

"So there's two possibilities," Twilight's father thought aloud. "Either the core you were looking for self-destructed, and they have two cores in Canterlot, or..."

"Or the core they have can move on its own!" Twilight finished.

"That weather-golem that was made out of the last core proves that they can do more with the cores than just have them sit there," Rarity added.

"Oooo, I hope it doesn't turn out to be another nasty, scary monster like the last one!" Pinkie whimpered.

"What else _can _it be?" Fluttershy asked.

"I _wish _we didn't have to find out!" Pinkie moaned.

"So...where do we need to go next?" Twilight asked.

Celestia answered, "According to the radar, the core hasn't moved from the east side of Canterlot, yet. But, Twilight...there's something we need to talk about before we go. You've been through a lot, today-in fact, you've been through _far_ too much, already. And Satallion putting your parents in danger was...a new low. I'm _very_ worried about you, right now; I think you should stay in spirit form and get some rest, again, the way you did in the forest."

Twilight looked from the Princess to her parents, gave them another quick nuzzle, then looked back at Celestia. "I just _got_ some rest, Princess. More than you would believe. I can, and I _will_ keep fighting."

Celestia looked at Twilight with concern for a moment, then smiled and switched into spirit form.

"We can turn this force field into a repulsor nova to knock these other unicorns away; that'll give you a few seconds so you can run," Twilight's father said.

"We'll put up another force field once you're clear," her mother added. She put her hoof on Twilight's cheek. "Come back to us in one piece, dearie."

"Don't worry; I will." She gave her parents one last goodbye kiss, then switched out with Rainbow Dash.

She crouched and pawed the ground, ready to sprint for the eastern district. "Ready when you are!" she shouted. Twilight's parents fired off their repulsor nova, and Rainbow Dash bolted, not looking back at all.

As she flew through the air, dark arrows came flying up at her. She was too agile to get hit, but there were a lot of arrows to dodge.

Twilight looked down. "Those arrows are coming from elementals, and there are a few unicorns that're shooting arrows, too!"

"At a guess," Celestia thought aloud, "It's only unicorns with strong affinities for magic that are capable of firing arrows of darkness."

Applejack gulped. "Ain't there a lot of powerful unicorn wizards in yer royal guard?"

"_And_ at my School for Gifted Unicorns," Celestia added. "_And_ at the Canterlot Research Institute where Twilight's parents work-I have to admit, the odds are stacked against us, but nevertheless, we _must try_."

"I'm starting to wonder why we haven't seen some of the tougher members of the royal guard come after us," Twilight said. "I mean, we've still not seen my brother, or Princess Cadence, or even any of the elite guards."

"_Or_ Princess Luna," Celestia added.

"Exactly."

Fluttershy audibly whimpered. "You mean...Nightmare Moon is back?"

"That's a possibility we just have to face," Celestia sighed.

Rainbow Dash snorted as she kept dodging arrows. "All of that probably means Satallion's got something _special_ planned for us. This can't be good..."

"_And _if he can move his core, that means he can lure us wherever he wants us to go!" Rarity added.

Pinkie gasped. "He must've had us come to Twilight's parents _just _so he could tease her with his meanie-mean-pants plan to trick us into thinking he could make them jump off the cliff and go splat!"

"...Our promise not to let what the corruption does get to us is going to be really, _really_ important, now," Twilight said. "It's not enough to just fight us; Satallion won't use a plan that won't make us _hurt_. That's his strength, but maybe it's also his weakness."

"All of this is making me wonder..." Celestia began to philosophize. "He can't give his troops direct marching orders, his troops can't run away or think while they're corrupted...it's almost as if some forms of stupidity are _inherent _to his power, and to his very being."

"Just like a lot of how hate is inherently stupid in a lot of ways," Twilight thought aloud.

"It's like Satallion and everything about him and his corruption are _made_ of hatred-the hoofprints of hate are on everything he does."

"Just where in the eastern district is the core?" Rainbow Dash interrupted; they were getting very close to the eastern district.

"The signal came from about the train station."

Rainbow Dash veered downwards, and found that the station was seething with elementals. She blasted them back with wind and let Twilight switch out. She fired as many arrows as she could, but she couldn't help but take some hits, as well. If only there were a way to keep the elementals from coming at her all at once!

"Rarity!" Twilight shouted as she took another hit. Rarity switched out and threw out a couple of crystal prisons. She found out suddenly that, when she threw out a crystal prison, the elementals near the prison stopped firing at her, and instead fired at the prisons to free their trapped comrades. That bought Rarity the few seconds she needed to touch a few heart-crystals to Twilight's spirit-orb and heal her. Rarity threw out a few more crystal prisons before letting Twilight switch back out. Twilight made quick work of the distracted elementals, but she did need Rarity to switch out and freeze a few more of them a few times before the battle was over.

Twilight looked around. There were no corrupted ponies or elementals in sight. It was _far_ too quiet. She took a few steps toward the train platform and peeked around the corner. There was her brother-and Princess Cadence.

"Took you long enough," Satallion said through their mouths. "It's high time-"

Twilight didn't wait to hear what Satallion had to say; she _immediately_ began firing arrows. Shining Armor created a force field of his own, and Princess Cadence began flying overhead and blasting them with magic from above. Twilight did her best to dodge and recalled the first real fight she'd had, against Fluttershy, where she had discovered to her horror that she couldn't fire her arrows up, but only parallel to the ground. Now Cadence was hovering out of her striking range!

Fluttershy switched out and tried sending birds at Cadence. Sure enough, she forgot about the battle, grabbed a bird between her hooves, and let the corruption seep into it. She was still too high up for Twilight to hit her, but the bird had lured her a bit lower. So Fluttershy sent another bird at Cadence again, this time again a little lower, and Cadence was lured still closer to the ground. Fluttershy kept this up, and finally, Cadence was at ground-level. Twilight began blasting her with as many arrows as she could, and Cadence immediately took off.

Twilight was a little surprised that Shining Armor hadn't fired a shot or even really done anything; it was actually a clever tactic to stay hidden behind his forcefield until he was needed. Cleverer than corrupted ponies usually were, which was a scary thought to Twilight. She tried to reason out what exactly the rules and limitations were, and then she realized that the real rule was that, when corrupted ponies were in combat, there always had to be at least one that was doing something to attack. As long as Cadence was attacking, Shining Armor could stay hidden inside his force field. ...Though it wasn't like Shining Armor to hide from a fight when the chips were down...

It dawned on Twilight that it was very possible that Satallion wasn't just keeping Shining Armor inside that force field to make the battle more difficult and unpredictable for Twilight: he might be doing it to shame Shining Armor by making him fight like a coward.

Twilight pushed the thoughts aside as Fluttershy lured Cadence back down to ground level. She wanted to see just how Shining Armor would react if Cadence were incapacitated, so instead of firing her arrows, she shouted, "Rarity, crystal prison!"

Rarity hurled a gem at Cadence while she was at ground-level, too low for her to get injured from the impact with the ground. Cadence was frozen in rock, and as Twilight predicted, her brother dropped his force field and charged at the crystal to try to break it with his hooves and magic. Rarity jumped out of his way and tried freezing him in a crystal prison as well, but the ice simply bounced off his armor and shattered.

"Pinkie, try your party cannon!" Twilight shouted. Pinkie switched out and covered the stallion with fly strips, and he struggled against his bonds for a moment. Twilight took that opportunity and switched out, firing as many arrows as she could at her brother. For a few seconds, it seemed to be working, but he quickly ripped his bonds up and whirled around. He fired an enormous arrow of darkness at Twilight out of his horn-so huge, she thought it was more like a spear or even a ballista bolt. Twilight gasped, as she didn't have time to dodge before the bolt was going to hit her-but Applejack switched out and took the hit instead. She was knocked to the ground, and Twilight quickly switched back out and tried to think of something...but it was too late: Cadence was freed of her crystal prison, and Shining Armor was once again hiding behind his force field.

Fluttershy switched out again and began luring Cadence to the ground again, and when she was near enough, Twilight shouted for Rarity to use her gems again. She did, and that again lured Shining Armor out of his force field.

This time, Twilight had a better idea of what to do. "Party cannon!" she shouted, and Pinkie had Shining Armor again wrapped in fly strips. Twilight knew that wouldn't hold him for long, but she also realized his armor-while it was his strength-was also his weakness. If he were to fall over, especially while he had fly strips on him, then it would take him a while to get back up. So she shouted for Rainbow Dash to use a tornado on him to knock him over, and sure enough, that kept him off his feet _just_ long enough for Twilight to uncorrupt him.

"Sis!" he shouted as he finally tore off the fly strips and got up. "Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine," she answered. But when she saw that he was about to touch Cadence, who was still corrupted and still locked in crystal, she screamed, "_Don't touch her_! The corruption spreads by touch!"

Satallion replied, through Cadence's mouth, "Oh, _touch me_, my husband! I'm just dying to feel you-"

"Don't listen to him!" Twilight interrupted. She didn't want to hear whatever Satallion was about to say.

"_Him?!_" Shining Armor asked. "…Twilight, what's going on, here?"

"Your sister has betrayed us!" Satallion made Cadence shout. Twilight's face went white, terrified that her brother might believe whatever lie Satallion was about to weave. But one look at his face told her that he wasn't buying it for a second.

"Twilight, whatever it was that you did to get me back to normal-_please_ tell me you can do it again for Cadence!"

"I can, and I will," Twilight answered. "But I have something to say to Satallion, first." She stepped up in front of the crystal prison so that Satallion could see her face through one of Cadence's eyes, but not far enough so that he could aim Cadence's horn at her to blast her with magic. Steeling herself for this conversation, she glared into the very eye of evil, itself. She firmly said, "You are _not_ gonna win this war! You're powerful, but our unity and friendship _more_ powerful. You don't give up, but neither do we! And you're smart, but we're smarter-and no matter what you put me through, no matter how much you try to mess with my head, I _won't_ let you win! You can make me miserable...but you can't make me _stupid_. Not anymore."

With a sneer that could cut granite, Satallion answered through Cadence's mouth, "That's quite alright, unicorn. _Miserable_ is enough for me!"

Twilight snorted and fired arrow after arrow into Cadence's body until she was uncorrupted.

For his part, Shining Armor had a look of horror and righteous fury on his face. He couldn't stomach the thought of this evil hurting his sister and using his wife-_and_ using _him_! After a few seconds pondering the horror of it, Shining Armor began to weave his magic to break Cadence out of her crystal prison.

"Twilight! Shiny!" Cadence asked frantically. "Are you all right?"

"We're fine," Shining Armor answered, gently lifting Cadence out of the crumbling rock and setting her down safely. They rubbed their heads together to reassure themselves that they were all right, and after a few seconds, they turned to Twilight, and Shining Armor asked, "You know what's going on, Twilight. Please, tell us what's happening to Canterlot!" He said it with more than a little shame; as captain of the guard, he should know more than Twilight about any threat to Canterlot-but all he knew was that dark magic had taken control of him and his wife, and forced them to fight his sister and her friends.

The rumbling of a hundred ponies' hooves thundered towards them. Shining Armor quickly formed a forcefield around them, and not a moment too soon: corrupted unicorns, many of them part of Shining Armor's guard, charged at the forcefield and began to smack it with hooves and magic to try to break it down and attack them. Shining Armor was more than able to keep the forcefield steady against the onslaught, but it was still a very disturbing sight to see all these corrupted ponies trying to attack them.

"It's just as awful to see the effects of the dark magic from the _outside_," Cadence moaned. "I can't stand to look at the faces of our citizens, our servants, our _friends_ when they're like this!"

"Don't look at them. Look at me," Shining Armor insisted. The two lovers looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds, then kissed. From that moment on, Cadence didn't take her eyes off of her husband.

"Please, Twilight, tell us what's happening!" Shining Armor asked again, reinforcing his forcefield. "If there's even the _smallest_ thing I can do to help fix all this, I'll do it. It's my duty to Canterlot!"

Twilight sat down and sighed, trying to collect her thoughts. "There's a lot to tell, Big Bro...this is all the work of a demon named Satallion; he's trying to take over Equestria, and he's created this corruption to do it. Whenever a corrupted pony or animal touches a pony who's uncorrupted, the corruption spreads.

"The Princess has a plan to stop it; there's an ancient spell called the Spell of Unity, and she used it to make me and my friends immune to the corruption. Only one of us can be in physical form at once, and...well, there's a lot more to it that we're figuring out as we go."

Suddenly, it dawned on Twilight that Applejack was still injured from taking a hit for her, so she gasped and said, "Rarity, can you heal Applejack? I'll keep explaining while you heal her…" Rarity switched out and began rifling through her bag for as many heart gems as she could, and Twilight continued to explain: "Somehow, this corruption magic can only work on any given living thing if something called a 'core' is close enough to it. A core is this...weird purple swirly energy thing, and we can use the Elements of Harmony to destroy it. And if we do, then all the ponies in the same city as the core get cured. The Princess keeps sending out this radar spell to find it-"

"Wait-Princess Celestia is with you?"

"Yes," Celestia answered, "I am here, in spirit form. Don't bow; focus on keeping the forcefield up."

Shining Armor did as he was told, but he insisted, "Please accept my deepest apologies for my failure to keep Canterlot safe from this evil. I'm prepared to step down for this lapse-"

"This is no personal failure on your part, Captain," Celestia insisted. "You couldn't have seen this coming, and you couldn't have had any lines of defense or contingency plans for _anything_ like this. For that matter, neither you nor any pony affected by the corruption can be held responsible for their actions; the corruption is _very_ powerful magic that completely overrides free will."

Celestia paused for a moment, then added, "Rarity, there's no time to lose. I'm going to send off the radar again." Celestia popped out into physical form, which was difficult in the cramped quarters inside the forcefield. But she sent the radar out and went back into spirit form.

Twilight kept explaining, "We've already destroyed three cores: one in Ponyville, one in Everfree Forest, and one in Cloudsdale. The Princess knew there was another one somewhere in Canterlot, so we came here, and we've been trying to track down the core here, but it...keeps moving. At least, we _think_ it keeps moving; the radar keeps coming back to us from a different place every time we send it out, and when we finally get there-there's no core. Which is really weird, because cores normally can't move; they usually just sit there."

"Now that Shining Armor is with us, I'd like to propose a new strategy," Celestia cut in. "Captain, maintain your force field, and keep maintaining it while I teleport you and Cadence along with the rest of us to wherever it is the radar leads us. Even if the core isn't there, at least we might be able to get some answers about why the radar keeps leading us to places where the core can't be found. We'll be going in blind, but your forcefield will give us extra insurance against whatever Satallion has planned."

Noting the cramped quarters, Shining Armor expanded his forcefield outward in a repulsor nova to push the attacking ponies away, much as his parents had, and he re-cast a much larger forcefield.

"Understood, Princess."

"How hard is it, Twilight?" Cadence asked, her eyes still fixed on her husband.

"...How hard is what?"

"How hard is it to destroy a core once you've found one?"

Twilight sighed, knowing the answer wasn't what Cadence wanted to hear. "Every core we've come across was guarded by something-an elaborate maze of caves, a powerful unicorn mage-one of the cores was even somehow turned into...some kind of armed _golem_! This one's got to be guarded, too, and we won't know by what until we see for ourselves."

Cadence swallowed hard, and her husband gave her another kiss. "This time, you'll have powerful unicorn mages on _your_ side," Shining Armor pointed out.

"_No_," Celestia insisted. "The corruption spreads far too easily. In any other battle, you'd be the most valuable asset we could ask for, but in this battle, you'd be a liability. You mustn't try to fight; if you fall under the corruption's control, we'd face both you _and_ whatever is guarding the core. And there's no more room for you in the Spell of Unity!"

Twilight switched back out and nuzzled her brother. "She's right; it's too dangerous. And I don't want you to fall under Satallion's control, again. If you're going to do anything to help us, it'll have to be from behind your forcefield."

For a moment, Shining Armor stared at his sister, scanning her face. "I...I understand, Sis, but...your face...I've never seen you look this tired, before. Just _what_ has this demon done to you?"

Twilight didn't want to remember it. She shook her head. "None of that matters, now."

"Twilight, I want to know what this demon is capable of, how it thinks, and how it works. _And_ I want to know just _what_ his crimes are."

Twilight sighed, and tried to hold back the tears as she recalled horror after horror from the previous day. "He...he always knows _exactly_ what to say to get under your skin. He did it to me, and to two of my friends. He had me feeling so mixed-up and worried for hours that...that I felt like I was going to get sick. He knows Princess Celestia's weaknesses, too-he found out that she had a phobia, and he's used that knowledge against us to hurt Celestia and me so much that-that we almost gave up. But that's not the worst part...the worst part is, he had Mom and Dad standing at the edge of the cliff in the southern district, and...and he told me he'd make them jump off if we didn't surrender!"

Shining Armor's jaw dropped as he heard Twilight list the demon's crimes, and a fire lit in his eyes. He was barely restraining his rage against this evil that was hurting his family, his nation, and his Princess so deeply and so horribly. Finally, he hissed through his clenched teeth, "_I...am going...to break...his NECK_!"

"Don't worry, Mom and Dad are okay-I figured out that he can't give specific commands to ponies he controls, so I didn't give in. But...it was still one of the worst moments of my life."

Shining Armor calmed down as he stopped thinking about retribution and starting thinking about Twilight. He and Cadence each went close to either side of Twilight and rested their heads against hers for a moment-for good measure, Cadence spread her wing over Twilight's back. They didn't say anything, and that was alright-Twilight felt like she was drawing strength and comfort, just by being held by two ponies who had nurtured her and helped make her the mare she was today. Even with the backdrop noise of snorting unicorns railing against the forcefield, Twilight felt like the fatigue in her was slowly being washed away; even though she'd been fighting and running and thinking and worrying all day, she would have the strength she needed for the next battle. That was all that mattered.

After a few more minutes, the radar came back. Celestia switched out into physical form, studied the magic that had returned for a moment, then gasped. "Canterlot Castle...? …There's no time to wonder why. Are you ready, Shining Armor?"

"Always ready to serve my Princess, castle, and nation!" He glanced at Twilight, and added, "_And_ family!"

Celestia began the teleportation spell, and they winked out of existence.

The next thing they knew, they were surrounded by corrupted ponies on all sides-unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony guards, castle servants, and looming large above them was Nightmare Moon-her eyes were blazing red, and a core was woven into her mystical hair!

"Luna-_NO_! Not again!" Celestia cried.

Nightmare Moon sneered down at them. "So predictable," she shouted. Again, her voice sounded like a mix of Luna's and Satallion's; it was clear that Satallion was talking through her mouth. She landed, walked up to the forcefield, and with the same horrible look Cadence had given Twilight, she chuckled, "Checkmate, Tia."

"What're you talking about?" Rainbow Dash snarled, switching out and getting up to Nightmare Moon's face.

"She's right," Celestia softly said.

"_What_?!" Fluttershy asked.

"Ya cain't mean we're just givin' up after everything we've done!" Applejack shouted.

Celestia shook her head. "There are _far_ too many corrupted ponies to fight; we'll never be able to survive a battle with them-"

"Even _with_ those 'extra lives' your precious Spell of Unity grants you!" Nightmare Moon sneered.

"We can't just give up," Shining Armor insisted. "Let me use a repulsor nova to clear them out. I'll-"

"Oh, I've already thought of _that_," Nightmare Moon laughed. "I have plenty of troops out of line-of-sight of your magic. You can't win! And you can't linger here, either: even _your_ forcefields won't hold for long against the combined might of my little ponies!

"Your pathetic attempts to fight me will make no difference in the end-everything you've done was taken into account in my plan! _You can't win_!

"Not that I expect you'll be wise enough to give up; you always _were_ the dumb one, Tia. And the spoiled brat who would never even do as she was told! I can see everything in Luna's mind, and I can tell you right now: she _never_ loved you! She only ever stayed with you out of a misguided sense of filial-"

Twilight saw that Satallion was now trying to get under Celestia's skin. It wasn't enough to trap them in a tactically unwinnable situation; he had to hurt his victims in the worst way possible, too! Twilight blurted the first thing that popped into her head: "Princess, cover your ears!"

The split-second after Twilight suggested it, she realized that it was a childish solution-it was _hiding_. Shouldn't any adult have the courage and wisdom to refuse to believe his lies? But to Twilight's surprise, Celestia actually did it: she got down on the ground and plugged her ears with her hooves. Twilight gave her blurted advice a second thought, and realized that it wasn't such a bad piece of advice, after all: there was nothing Nightmare Moon had to say that Celestia needed to hear, and there was no way out of the forcefield except to teleport away. And Twilight didn't want to do that just yet; she had managed to think of something when her parents were in danger, so maybe she'd think of something now.

Twilight's train of thought was interrupted by what she thought she saw, for a moment: she could've sworn she saw Celestia _stick her tongue out_ at Nightmare Moon! If she had blinked, she'd have missed it. Strangely, she felt comforted by the sight of such a childish action-though Twilight was confused for a second about why it felt comforting. Then she realized why it was a comforting sight: it meant that the Princess was still herself! She _liked_ being silly every now and again, and it was one of the things that made her who she was. And despite everything Satallion had put her through-rain and terror and guilt and exhaustion-no permanent damage had been done to her personality. That _was_ a massive relief to Twilight!

Nightmare Moon apparently didn't miss it. She shouted, "You are all _foals_! Why don't you just grow up?!"

Applejack shot back, "Listen you, I got a comeback for you involving the words 'Why don't you just' and 'up', but I ain't gonna say it in the presence of three princesses!"

"Thank Celestia you're not _that_ uncouth!" Rarity chimed in.

Shining Armor snorted. "Fine. We can't win this fight. Princess, can you teleport us away? We'll find a fight we _can_ win, and-"

Nightmare Moon screeched with horrible laughter.

Pinkie moaned, "Ooo, I _hate_ that kind of laughter!"

Nightmare Moon continued, "You little _foal_! Don't you realize that won't do you any good? You'll be no better off than you were when you came to Canterlot if you can't destroy this core! Canterlot is _mine_, and soon all of Equestria will be _mine_! Flee now, and you'll have gained _nothing_!"

"Not true," Twilight shouted, switching out. "I'll have my brother and foalsitter back, and even though I don't expect you to understand why, that's the most valuable plunder I can take away from you. And _you _make no mistake: we'll find a way to beat you, whether we think of something here, or think of it someplace else!"

Twilight turned to Celestia, and she opened her ear just enough to hear her. "Come on, Princess. Let's teleport out of here while we still can."

Celestia sadly nodded, but took one last look up at Nightmare Moon before she teleported away. "Luna...I don't know if you can hear me, but I _will_ come back for you. I _promise_ you that."

Suddenly, two ponies popped into existence next to Shining Armor and Cadence-it was Twilight's parents!

"I sensed that things weren't going well," Twilight's mother explained, "So we came to see if we could make a difference."

Nightmare Moon laughed and glared at Twilight. "So, your 'family' is complete, my little pony? _Including_ your friends? Ha! What difference does it make?! You keep implying that I don't know what friendship and love are. I'll concede that I don't, but there is something _I_ see that you don't, as well, and I think you're finally starting to see it:

"_Love makes no difference_! I can, and I _will_ hold Canterlot indefinitely, and you'll never be able to make yourselves stronger than you are now-your Spell of Unity cannot hold any more ponies! Any army you raise elsewhere in Equestria won't be able to help you; they won't be immune to my magic! You will _never_ be able to overcome my position here! But I can, and I _will_ keep getting stronger, as more and more ponies come under my thrall. The cores you have destroyed can be replaced more easily than you'd _dare_ imagine! And the love you have between you and your friends, you and your family, you and your _Princess_, can _never_ overcome my power! If it could, then tell me this: _why didn't it_? Why didn't dear, cute, demure, _vulnerable_ little Fluttershy apologize to you and kiss and make up when you called to her, the first time you saw her under my thrall?"

Twilight remembered that moment, the first time the corruption really yanked at her heartstrings-then she realized that, just by pondering what Satallion was saying, she was taking the first step in the direction of letting Satallion's words get to her. So that was it-she wasn't listening, anymore. She had to get her mind off of it; she had to focus on what they were doing.

What were they doing? They were about to teleport away and try to come up with a plan to retake Canterlot-but if Satallion wasn't lying, then retreating here would get them nowhere-it might even undo all the hard work they'd spent the whole hard day doing, if Satallion somehow used the resources in Canterlot to replace the cores they'd destroyed. And if he replaced the core in Cloudsdale, the setback would be _horrible_! _And_, since he knew about Celestia's phobia of rain, he'd make taking Cloudsdale back a priority. Twilight's face went pale at the thought.

"Princess, don't teleport away-we need to think of something, and we need to think of it _here_ and _now_." Twilight looked at her parents and her brother and Cadence, trying to think of what she had to work with. Suddenly, something clicked in her mind: if her parents could put a forcefield around themselves, Shining Armor, and Cadence to keep Nightmare Moon out, and if Shining Armor could put another forcefield around the castle courtyard to keep Nightmare Moon _in_ and keep her reinforcements _out_, then _they might just stand a chance_!

Twilight barked out, "Mom, Dad, put a forcefield around yourselves, Shining Armor, and Cadence! I have an idea!"

Twilight's parents immediately obeyed, and Shining Armor smirked righteously. Twilight began to say, "Now, Shining Armor, use your forcefields to keep-" But her brother immediately saw what Twilight was planning, and had already put his forcefield up, just where Twilight wanted it to be. Celestia apparently caught onto the plan, as well, and she switched back into spirit form.

"Give me strength, and we can do this!" Shining Armor whispered to Cadence. He turned to Nightmare Moon and shouted, "You're not going _anywhere_, demon! Give 'em hell, Twilight!"

"Give _me_ hell?" Satallion laughed. "I _AM_ HELL!" Satallion shouted back, beginning to brandish Nightmare Moon's terrible magic.

Twilight began firing arrows at Nightmare Moon, and they seemed to have some effect, but the core was pushing back: while Twilight could remove some of the corruption from Luna, the core kept putting it back.

Nightmare Moon let her mane sweep in front of her, and began hurling lightning at Twilight. She did her best to anticipate the lightning strikes and dodge, and she seemed to be having an easier time at it than she'd have thought.

Suddenly, Nightmare Moon tried another tactic: she hurled a flock of bats at Twilight. It was a mystery where those bats could've come from, but Fluttershy switched out, and immediately, the bats ceased to be corrupted. Fluttershy sent them back at Nightmare Moon, hoping that it would distract her-and it did! Nightmare Moon waved her hooves at the flock of bats, trying to recorrupt them, and that bought Twilight more time to keep smacking Nightmare Moon with arrows. Twilight noted that she was going to have to keep the pressure up if she was going to win this battle, but getting an edge of any kind, keeping Nightmare Moon from attacking her any way she could, would be helpful.

"Rarity, try a crystal prison!" Twilight shouted. Rarity hurled an ice crystal at Nightmare Moon, and her chest and legs were encased in ice. Her head, however, was not, and she took that opportunity to hurl a dark ballista bolt at Twilight-much the same as how Shining Armor had done so. Twilight anticipated the attack, and she leaped over the spear, and did her best to keep firing arrows into Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon kept firing spears back, and Twilight had to keep leaping to avoid getting hit-and every time she did, she brought herself too high up to properly land a hit on her, and she could tell she was actually losing ground against the corruption. So she resolved not to try having Rarity use a crystal prison again.

Nightmare Moon finally broke out of the ice, and began hurling lightning at Twilight again, exactly the way she had before. Twilight kept firing arrows at Nightmare Moon as quickly as she could, and she seemed to be making good headway against the corruption. But just as the corruption was nearly gone, Nightmare Moon switched tactics: she began firing wave after wave after wave of magic at Twilight, much the same as the magic Trixie and the Manticore had been using-only bigger. Jumping over them was difficult; Rainbow Dash had to switch out to properly dodge them. She tried sending a tornado at Nightmare Moon, but it had no effect.

Once the corruption had redone all the damage Twilight had cured, Nightmare Moon sent out another flock of bats. Fluttershy popped out and sent the bats back at her, and Twilight again began curing Luna.

Twilight tried to think-when little corruption is left, Nightmare Moon switches tactics. The lightning, she can handle, but those dark waves...? She needed some way to interrupt them, and whatever she did, it would have to be quick: if she didn't keep the pressure on with her arrows, she'd lose ground again. Between dodges and arrows, she thought to herself: what are her options? The party cannon? Applejack's earthquakes? ...The party cannon seemed like a safer option.

As the corruption was nearer and nearer to emptied, Twilight shouted, "Pinkie, get ready...!" Just as the first dark wave flew out at Twilight, she shouted, "Pinkie, party cannon!" Pinkie switched out and covered Nightmare Moon with fly strips. She began struggling against her bonds, and that stopped her from sending out dark waves. Twilight switched out and fired arrows as quickly as she could. The corruption seemed to disappear from Nightmare Moon, and her eyes stopped glowing red.

The core crackled and began seeping more corruption into Nightmare Moon, but while it was doing so, Nightmare Moon was completely motionless. Celestia apparently decided that it was worth the risk to try to use the Elements of Harmony on her at this point, because the next thing Twilight knew, her friends were all standing next to her. The energy of the Elements surged through her, and their rainbow-colored light slammed into Nightmare Moon and the core, destroying them both, and leaving a dazed Luna behind.

Immediately, the pounding against Shining Armor's forcefield stopped; what had moments ago been Satallion's army was now once again the royal guard and citizens of Canterlot. Slowly, applause and cheering began, and soon, the sound of joy and victory filled the whole castle.

Twilight felt the adrenaline slowly flowing out of her system, and looked around. It hit her: she and her friends and her family had just saved the kingdom of Canterlot-she had _done _it! It was _over_! She looked over at her friends, and could tell from their faces that it was beginning to hit them, too, that they had won. She looked over at her family, and dove in for a hug with them. It was a tangled mess of hugs, nuzzles, kisses, and love, and it was one of the happiest moments of Twilight's life, as the triumph of her hard-won victory filled her heart.

Celestia walked up to Luna to see if she was all right. Luna looked up at her through tearful eyes. She moaned, just loud enough for Celestia and Twilight's friends to hear it, "I'm so sorry, Tia!"

"Don't be. _None_ of this is your fault at all, Luna. There is _nothing_ for me to forgive," Celestia insisted.

"Yet...I am a threat to Equestria," she whimpered. "I was once, and...and I fear I will be again! There is but one way to prevent Nightmare Moon from ever threatening you or your-_our_ people!" Luna tapped her chest with her hoof. "Here is my heart. One thrust of your horn, sister, and the Nightmare ends forever!"

Celestia shook her head. There was love in her eyes, and sorrow that Luna was even thinking this way.

Luna pleaded, "I don't want to become the Nightmare again! Please...you know when to stop being soft, and do what is necessary! I implore you-"

"Your heart is _here_," Celestia insisted, tapping her own chest, "And _my_ heart is there," she added, tapping Luna's chest. "Even if you become Nightmare Moon again, she won't be able to keep her hold on you for long." Celestia looked over at Twilight and her brother and parents and foalsitter. "Look, sister. They are a family, and the love they share is a precious thing, and it is worth risking much for. Even if I had to face Nightmare Moon every year, every month, every day-it would be worth it to have you back.

"And no matter what happens, I believe with all my heart that you and I can and _will_ share the same joy they do. Whatever else we may be, Luna-we're a family." Their eyes locked for a moment in silence; Luna was trying to decide whether to ask again for her sister to thrust her horn into her heart, and if so, _how_ to ask it. Celestia sensed it, so she added, "I implore _you_, my sister: find the strength within you to believe that we _can_ share this joy!"

"I..." Luna paused. "...I _shall_ believe it, sister. And even when I do not believe it, I shall behave as though I do believe, for your sake. And...I hope that you are right..." She couldn't say any more. Luna squeezed her eyes shut to try to stop the tears from flowing, got up, stood beside Celestia, and buried her face in Celestia's neck. Celestia spread her wing over Luna's back and gently kissed her sister. The crowd's cheering crescendoed at this; they didn't know that Luna was contemplating death-all they knew was that there was love between their beloved Princesses, and that was enough for them to cheer for.

Soon, the Spell of Unity kicked in, and only Twilight and Celestia were left in physical form. It took a long time for the applause of the crowd to die down; they were so glad to be free of the corruption's influence, free to love each other, their nation, and their rulers.

But as the applause died down, Celestia decided now was the time to give them the sad, necessary reminder. With her booming voice, she shouted, "People of Canterlot! Hear your Princess!

"Our war against the demon who corrupted our fair city with dark magic...is _not_ over! He still lives, and we are not yet safe. But do not fear; we have a plan to destroy him and subvert his plans for our fair nation. For now, return to your homes and rest; this has been a long day."

Twilight finally stepped away from her family and asked Celestia, "W-what do we do now, Princess?"

"There are a number of things to get in order-I will hold council with the nobles and royal guard." Celestia looked to one of the castle servants who was walking up to her, and said, "Have seven dinners prepared and sent to the audience chamber-I and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony will be eating them during the council. Even if it is irregular, it is what must be done."

"Yes, milady."

Author's Notes:

...This is turning into a hurt/comfort fic, but who's hurting and who's doing the comforting keeps shifting around. So I'm not 100% sure it counts. I'd like to add that the usual suspects for hurt and for comfort, like the fan-favorites of Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy, are practically not on the map for the hurt and comfort. Not much, anyway-it's mostly Twilight and Celestia who are feeling the pain and getting the comfort, and of those two, it keeps changing who receives the comfort and who gives it. I'd like to add that a significant amount of Celestia's comfort came from the _whole population of Cloudsdale_, rather than one of the mane six (or a Mary Sue).

Actually, the position Celestia was in at that point, where she was afraid she'd lose everything-the creature-comforts of her castle and servants, her wealth and power, the ability to be with her loved ones-on account of what she did a thousand years ago really shows how thoroughly _screwed _she was. She was in a position where she could've lost it all, and if it hadn't been for their forgiveness, she _would've _lost it all. In fact, if they hadn't so resoundingly insisted on forgiving her, she'd have walked away from everything out of shame. That's why their forgiveness was such a wonderful thing.

And yes, calling the maid in Celestia's chamber "Sundancer" was a shout-out to Progress. I've not read much of it-more time spent looking at other people's work means less time spent working on my own, but I've heard that Progress is an excellent fic, and what little I've seen of it was quite good.

I've just heard an orchestral, instrumental remix of WoodenToaster's Beyond Her Garden-the remix was done by StormWolf, and it has a badass, majestic, adventurous feel to it. I think it'll be perfect for a segment of Canterlot-probably the first part. I'd like it if the music changed every now and again in the game, perhaps having one tune for the castle to the southern district, another tune for the southern district to the eastern, and...well, that would about be it. The levels are more or less divided logically into different parts by the bosses, though the SA/PC fight comes chronologically immediately before the NM fight, so there's no third part of this level, the way I've written it (adding a segment in where they get lured to the crystal caves under Canterlot would fix that, and so would adding a segment where they're actually in Canterlot Castle-in retrospect, the interior of the castle was one video game setting I forgot to add).

There's four or so parts to Cloudsdale: going to the center of town, going up to the top (though the get-the-blankets sidequest might work for a fifth segment), then going back down to the weather factory, then the weather factory itself. Each of those having a different tune would be nice.

And there are TONS of brony tunes out there, almost literally begging to be made into a video game (sometimes they _are literally_ begging for it)-that's one of the main reasons why I'm writing this fic, and even now, am programming a proof-of-concept game to try to rally support for this project. Of course, some of the tunes I've heard might not be used quite the way the composers intended; Epic Final Bosses of Equestria by Basch, for instance, I consider to be an excellent series of pieces. But they sound to me like they'd work better as background pieces for particularly dangerous or vista-displaying level segments, rather than as boss backgrounds. Then again, you never know how it'll all be put together in the end.

I have to say, this fic is waaaay too short for a video game to be simultaneously good _and_ 100% faithful to it; any video game that anyone actually makes based off of the concepts in this fic is probably going to have to have _at least_ two or three more levels. Ideally, there'd be even more; all the games I remember that were really great and satisfying, like Earthbound and Super Mario RPG, were long ones-playing them was fun, and the fun lasted a long time. So I think any game based off of this fic should be long, too.

I could lengthen this fic, but I feel like the flow of the story would be disrupted if I did; the angst of the characters getting brought up and resolved is one of the main themes of this story (though it wouldn't have to be a theme for a video game adaptation of it). Angst comes up for Twilight with her OCD and overphilosophizing, it comes up for Pinkie because her bosses yell at her and make her wonder if she's really grown up, it comes up for Rainbow Dash because she thinks she'll be a laughingstock for taking Twilight's advice and wearing a raincoat, it comes up for Celestia because she's got a phobia of rain, and it comes up for Twilight again because Celestia yells at her, and now it comes up for Twilight because her family is in danger. I think that, so far, the way I've written things, the angst flows naturally from the story, and I get the feeling that adding chapters would throw a monkey wrench into the flow at this point, so I don't plan to add chapters to the story proper. I'd prefer that this be a good fic requiring a lot of changes to make a good video game, rather than a bad fic requiring few changes.

That being said, I plan to actually add two chapters after the end that don't really flow chronologically with the rest of the story. In that sense, they'd be "non-canon"-I think they'd be called "omake", but these wouldn't really be played for laughs like most omake are. At least, they wouldn't be _primarily_ for laughs; these two chapters would contain ideas for another two levels, and while each would have a story and a progression of its own that could've probably been shoehorned into this tale, they won't be a part of this story proper. And I may add more chapters after those two if I get more ideas.

Ideally, I'd like this fic to be a good fic, and a video game based off of it to be a good (or excellent!) video game. And the things that make a fic good aren't necessarily the same things that make a video game good. It's the same story with movies, comic books, television series, and live stage productions: each one of those mediums needs to have different things going into it to make it good-different pacing, different things to grab or hold the audience's attention, different design, structure, and flow-probably a lot more that I haven't thought of. That's another of the reasons why I keep saying that I don't have a problem with loads of changes being made in the process of adaptation.

I've thrown around a few ideas for changes to the rules that could be made in the author's notes before now...I'll list them out, here:

1) Having Celestia be able to expand the Spell of Unity at will so that other characters can join the mane six and become playable. I see _almost_ no downsides to this; if Celestia could expand the Spell of Unity at will, then that allows fan-favorites to be playable characters, and not just the mane six. The one downside is that I would need to come up with an excuse why Celestia doesn't just absorb every innocent civilian they uncorrupt into the Spell of Unity. ...Then again, the answer might be that she _does_, because it's the only way to keep them safe from the corruption.

2) Rename the main villain to Mephistofilly (to make the game more acceptable to Hasbro), recharacterize him as a childish female (having the villain throw a tantrum as a kind of a "don't act like her, kids" message would be good, and it would make it all the more entertaining and satisfying when we see her fail), and have her as a much more in-your-face villain from the very start. One good way to do that would be to have the whole adventure start at midday rather than before the crack of dawn, and the first thing Twilight (or whichever of the mane six ends up being the first PC) sees to kick things off is Mephistofilly corrupting a pony or a crowd of ponies, and since the corruption spreads exponentially, all of Ponyville is quickly affected, and the mane six (or just the first playable character) need to run and hide until the Princess shows up with her plan. This would establish the villain early-on as nasty, and establish the corruption early-on as extremely dangerous and the main conflict. Maybe seeing Mephistofilly plant the core would be a good idea, too, since it would give the whole story of level 1 a clear progression: you want to destroy that core!

3) Having the mane six always wear the necklaces/tiara of the Elements of Harmony, and when they do, they can fire cutie-mark-shaped magic bullets that have the same effect in the game as Twilight's arrows of light have in this fic. This has the advantage of giving every playable character a ranged attack with a consistent effect (that makes it simpler for little girls to learn the game), and if I give Twilight back her teleportation powers, then that would still give her enough abilities to make her unique (I could redesign the boss battles around the assumption that players will need to teleport to avoid attacks or to get to a place to hit the boss from). _And_ this setup would show off the characters' cutie marks and add a splash of color to the game-again, that's always to be desired in a kiddie game. And, of course, each character would still have their unique abilities-the lasso, the crystal prisons, tornadoes, etc. **However**, there is a disadvantage to this setup: the characters you'd take on as the story progresses (e.g. Zecora, Soarin, Derpy) would _not_ have Elements of Harmony to go with them; they'd be at a disadvantage versus the mane six. That may or may not be a dealbreaker, though in principle, I could add another magic necklace that goes around the neck of whichever other pony you're playing as, and can adjust to whatever cutie mark that pony has. Or say that the Elements of Harmony are a mysterious force of good, and that new elements (or just new magic bullet-firing necklaces) can be temporarily created when joined to the Spell of Unity.

I've spoken about the above three changes in previous notes, but here are some more ideas I'd like to speak up about for the first time-let the reader keep in mind that both the below and the above are just suggestions, thoughts, and ideas; anyone adapting this into a game doesn't need to take all of them-or _any_ of them, for that matter:

4) Continuing the thought of the magic necklace above, perhaps I could set things up so that the player doesn't get that necklace unless the player completes the game and then replays it, or until the player fulfills the requirements of a sidequest. That might add some replay value to the game; having a branching storyline already adds replay value, but this could add more replay value, yet.

5) Keep the main villain ambiguous, but make the player think it's Nightmare Moon-NM would really be the avatar of Satallion/Mephistofilly or perhaps the avatar of an Elemental King or some such monster, and she'd be the final boss of the game. This keeps things familiar and gives a very satisfying conclusion to the game; the scene above where the crowd cheers for you when you finally beat NM is pretty epic, and _would_ be a good place to end the story-or, at least, it would be a good place to end the first installment of the story.

6) After every chapter, the mane six come back to Ponyville to play the dress-up minigame again to get an outfit for the next chapter. Again, having dress-up minigames as an integral part of the story is _exactly_ the kind of thing that _any_ My Little Pony game should have. Remember, if this is going to actually get pitched to the Hasbro execs, then it's got to be a My Little Pony game that makes little girls go squee. It can't _just_ be an old-school-style platformer that appeals to bronies like me. If the rules were changed so Twilight could use her magic, then she could probably teleport them back to Ponyville at will. This would also have the benefit of making the story last longer chronologically: _this_ whole story has taken place over the course of a day, and you can expect the ponies to get tired from all that running around and fighting (and stress!). Now, I could make the Spell of Unity counteract the effects of their fatigue (and originally I was planning on it-see chapter 1, just after Twilight's fight with Fluttershy, to see an example of what I'm talking about). But the way this fic is shaping up, the mane six are getting _tired_ at this point in the narrative. If the story took place over several days or even months instead, then that wouldn't be a problem; they could rest, eat, and sleep as much as they needed to in between adventures. ...Alternatively, I could do what every other video game does and ignore the effects of fatigue altogether.

7) For some special actions, such as Rarity healing up other PCs or Twilight teleporting, take the control away from the keyboard, and put it on the mouse, instead-you click and drag heart-crystals to the portraits of the mane six to heal them up. Maybe Applejack's lasso could work the same way: click an enemy to grab it and stun it. This would work well for a game on the Nintendo DS or Wii U or on a tablet PC or smartphone, and is still quite doable with a PC or Mac using a keyboard and mouse. Hmm...what if each of the mane six had one move like that? Let's see, if the player had to click and drag in a particular direction to send Pinkie's party cannon streamers (fly paper) in a particular direction, that could work. Maybe having it work with her Pinkie Sense would work better, though, like you see an arrow or something to tell you an enemy or item is off-screen, but you only really figure out what exactly that arrow means if you click on the arrow... Sending Rainbow Dash's tornadoes out the same way might work, too, or better still, making the user click and drag in a circle, and then she fires the tornado. Another idea for RD: the click-interface is only used when she interacts with a cloud to make it rain or to use lightning to stun enemies. As for Fluttsershy, what I'd had in mind for Fluttershy's animals when I started writing this fic would be that, whenever Fluttershy is in physical form, she'd have birds (or bats, if they're underground) fly at her from off-screen, and they'd come in every second or so. Every time one touches her, it becomes uncorrupted, and then it circles her. Up to a maximum of five or so birds can circle her at once. Then, when the user presses the spacebar, Fluttershy sends out however many animals are circling her-if there are three circling her, she sends those three out. If there are five, she sends five out. If there is only one, she sends that one out. In this story, that was her one and only attack, but since it distracts all the enemies on screen, it's a pretty good attack (which is why I called her a Glass Cannon, despite the lack of damage per se). If, however, her main attack becomes a magic bullet from her EoH necklace, then maybe a better idea would be that, instead of circling her, the birds just fly in formation around her. Then when the user switches to mouse-mode, the user can click a bird, send it off in a particular direction, then click another bird, send it in another direction, etc. That would make it unique. Alternatively, clicking could control her famed Fluttershy Stare, and let her uncorrupt animals _at range_. Then she can send the animals out all at once with one button push, much the way I originally envisioned it for this story. ...This paragraph contains unique ideas for each of the mane six's mouse-control abilities, doesn't it? Twilight: click to teleport. Applejack: click to lasso. Rarity: click and drag heartstones to heal; click and drag other stones to freeze enemies (or maybe it so there's one kind of gem, and it can be used either to create crystal prisons or to heal? ...Nah: that would either make healing too cheap, or freezing enemies too expensive). Or you could click and drag a smaller gem onto Rarity's necklace, and then the next enemy she hits with an EoH bullet is frozen. Pinkie: mouse over something she senses with Pinkie Sense to get more information. Rainbow Dash: use the mouse to control a rain cloud. Fluttershy: click animal enemies to uncorrupt them. ...Pretty sweet, actually, and it could be fun for little girls to be drawing and interacting with the screen like that.

8) One of the main reasons I gimped Twilight's magic was because, if I didn't, it would allow her to get into Rarity's boutique quickly and easily in chapter 1-remember, she moved an Ursa Minor with her telekinesis, and that thing makes an elephant look like a hamster-he had to have been in the kiloton range in terms of weight! So a boulder the size of Tom wouldn't have been a problem for her magic, and at the time I was writing Chapter 1, I wanted to preserve the Metroid/Zelda style plot coupon approach. However, setting things up so that the order isn't mandatory (or is different each time?) might be a better idea, and besides, the whole point of Chapter 1 is to round up all of the mane six so they can use the Elements of Harmony, so even if Twilight _had_ moved Tom by herself, she'd still have needed Applejack's help in the end. Bottom line: the order of operations in Ponyville isn't sacrosanct. I can't think of anything that is, for that matter, except that (a) the game must show off the variety of Equestra and use a lot of video game settings tropes, and (b) the user must be able to switch which pony they're playing as instantly, while mostly being able to get away with playing as whichever pony they like.

9) As an alternative to outright replacing Satallion with Mephisofilly, one alternative is to have Mephistofilly be what I call the "Loser Bad Guy". (They _really_ need to get this one on !) In a lot of children's programming, there's a "Loser Bad Guy" who answers to a Serious Bad Guy, and the heroes routinely defeat the Loser Bad Guy. Every time they do, the Serious Bad Guy yells at or punishes the Loser Bad Guy, showing simultaneously (a) what a loser the Loser Bad Guy is, and (b) how nasty the Serious Bad Guy is. It has the benefit of giving something for the hero to defeat in a satisfying manner, keeping things funny by having the hero beat a loser, and also keeping things serious because, no matter how much of a loser the Loser Bad Guy is, you're eventually going to have to worry about the Serious Bad Guy, too. This was done for part of Digimon Adventure with Demidevimon as Myotismon, Care Bears had Beastly and No Heart, Get Ed had Crouch and Bedlam, The Black Cauldron had Creeper and The Horned King-the list goes on. If you're a troper and you're reading this, get on YKTTW and make this a trope! It's not the same as Minion With An F In Evil, though there is some overlap...maybe Minion With An F In Evil is a subtrope, but I'm not 100% sure. Anyhow, in principle, we could do that here, too, and have Mephistofilly be the Loser Bad Guy, and Satallion be the Serious Bad Guy. It would help the plot thicken, now that I think about it, if the player sees a cutscene at the end of level 1 or somewhere in level 2 that Mephistofilly is cowering before a shadowy, sinister figure, pleading for mercy for her failures...

10) Retool Trixie as a Loser Bad Guy, or even just as a recurring boss. When I first had her as the final boss of Ponyville, I'd wanted to user her later as a recurring boss-the story just didn't end up shaping up that way, the way I've written it, here. It felt like it was too soon to have her as a boss again in Everfree, and since she can't fly and since Gilda fits the "familiar villain" role well for Cloudsdale, it didn't happen there, either. Then in Canterlot, I thought of such a good progression of bosses with Twilight's parents, then Shining Armor and Cadence, and finally Nightmare Moon, that I didn't reuse Trixie there, either. If Trixie were a recurring boss, then it would open up some more possibilities, for instance, at first, the mane six might keep asking themselves, "How does she keep getting corrupted?" and only _later_ suspect (or discover) that she became corrupted willfully. (I hope you've picked up by now that Trixie allowed herself to be corrupted on purpose-I've even toyed around with the idea that Satallion was summoned to the land of the living by Trixie in the first place, as an attempt on her part to try to either prove her magical might or become more powerful as part of a Faustian bargain.)

11) Renaming the game "The Spell of Unity" would be an easier sell for the Hasbro execs. ...Yeah, _definitely_ a good idea; it's hard to see a mother looking at "The Devil's Stallion" on the cover of a game at Gamestop and thinking to herself "Oh, this will be perfect for my six-year-old daughter's birthday!" And you can bet your butt the Hasbro execs are savvy to that fact. ...As a matter of fact, a mother walking into Gamestop and actually thinking that "The Devil's Stallion" is _good_ for her six-year-old would be far creepier than the actual game itself could ever be. ...I need to stop thinking about this, though adding thoughts like this to the author's notes probably makes them more readable and entertaining. Ironic that they're funnier than the actual story, no? Not that I was aiming for funny with the main narrative in the first place, which is part of the problem...I'm getting off-topic...actually, no, I'm not: this is a perfect segue to my next topic:

12) Any game that would actually be based off of this story would have to have a LOT more humor to work as a kid-friendly game. This fic has its funny moments-the commode scene and anything that has Derpy in it, Celestia hoofing her own eye by accident-but they're few and far between; it's almost all drama and action. (It's also too much toilet humor, and more is on the way, believe it or not-I need more varied material!)

13) Change the overall plot of the game so that Celestia doesn't know what's going on at first. As the game progresses and she calls on the mane six to go on more and more missions to save different areas of Equestria, more of the plot unfolds. This would also serve to make the whole story lighter and softer, and as things stand, this narrative feels like it's still a bit too dark for a canonical MLP game.

14) Outright replace Satallion with something else-I could simply call the main antagonist "The Corruption" and never give it a real form, perhaps making it look like Nightmare Moon is the avatar of "The Corruption". Another alternative: make the main antagonist an Elemental King-if you took Satallion out of the game and replaced him with an Elemental King with the same personality, it'd be the same plot and the same gameplay.

15) Turn the game into something less like a linear platformer (you'll notice each chapter starts _immediately_ where the last one left off in this fic) and something more like an open sandbox game. Like you need to actually go to the train station and go to Canterlot Castle when the Princess summons you, rather than having a cutscene where POOF! you're there. This would also add potential for a lot of minigames, allowing you to do sidequests to earn more bits or learn more about the plot or backstory of the game, letting you earn money to buy raw materials to create new clothing items at Rarity's Boutique (possibly letting you boost your characters' stats, like getting more HP, faster run speed, higher jumps, and/or more damage), and the like. Maybe you could even have Twilight learn new spells as she goes on, or even Rarity-imagine Rarity working hard and finally learning Twilight's Magic Missle, Force Field, or Teleport spells! Having it be a sandbox game might also be an easier sell to the Hasbro execs, and it would give anyone playing it (little girls, bronies, and pegasisters alike) the feeling that they're actually in the magical world of Equestria-which is an awesome selling point for execs and gamers alike! Plus, if all you want is platforming action, you can have that, too-there should be and can be options to skip the sidequests and sandbox gameplay and just get straight to the action!

16) Every now and again, add in monster bosses that don't really have to do with the corruption-or, at least, they themselves aren't corrupted. I'm thinking about things like beholders and other classic Dungeons and Dragons monsters. (Hasbro owns the rights too Dungeons and Dragons, and even based unicorns in G1 off of their depiction in D&D: every unicorn could teleport in G1. But I digress.) When you defeat these monsters, you need to take them to Tartarus to have Cerberus guard them. (These could also be a part of the minigames and sidequests from 14 above.) When the mane six bring one in, the player is treated to a cutscene where the mane six force the monster into the Tartarus cave, and a guard hands them a fat sack of cash for their trouble. And then Cerberus gives you a big, wet doggy-kiss. I.e. you get slimed with dog-slobber. That's a good reason for the mane six to keep their raincoats handy (see the start of Chapter 4. lol).

17) To increase the angst in the Canterlot chapter, set things up so that Celestia had enough warning to tell Shining Armor to put Canterlot in a forcefield. As such, they keep thinking Canterlot is safe-then the mane six and the player get some surprise factor in when Canterlot is under attack.

18) If the Canterlot level needs to be longer, add a segment to it where Nightmare Moon lures the mane six into the crystal caves beneath Canterlot, where an ambush of elementals, or perhaps an elemental boss (or Trixie?), is set up. Again, that mixes an underground setting in with the castle/city setting, kind of like how I mixed the cave maze into the forest level. And the crystal caves are quite a bit different from the stone caves in Everfree, or from the Diamond Dog Underground, for that matter. Another option, not mutually exclusive with the Crystal Caves thing: have the mane six have to fight their way through the castle. (How did I _not_ think of this sooner?! Castles have been a platformer trope since Super Mario Bros!)

It's worth noting that I came up with the idea of corruption elementals to make the Canterlot level harder and more sinister-even though I didn't use them all that much in this fic. I'd wanted Canterlot to be the last or next-to-last level, so it's going to need to have a creepy or a "we're getting close to the heart of all evil" vibe to it for everything to work. Having to fight palace guards would give it a badass vibe, but having ghosts or demons made of pure corruption would take it even further in the "heart of all evil" direction.

I'd like to add that I'm a bit surprised I only had one elemental boss in the whole of this story: the Weather Golem in Cloudsdale. For that matter, I think that was the only boss that's also an OC! In retrospect, elementals as bosses make perfect sense, and probably should've appeared more often...oh, well. Having recognizable characters as bosses is also awesome, but if I were to make a game out of this, I'd probably have more elemental bosses.

Another one:

19) Have the palace guards, when you uncorrupt them, actively fight on your side. They can taunt enemies off of you and use different abilities-for instance, earth pony guards could use the ground-pound Applejack uses, pegasus guards could use tornadoes like Rainbow Dash's, and unicorns could use magic missile/arrows of light much like how Twilight does. Maybe they'd have completely different spells, like elemental fire, ice, lightning, wind, or earth spells. This would make those guards very useful, and depending on how much more difficult Canterlot is supposed to be compared to other areas, it might make it vital that you uncorrupt them.

On the subject of getting help from NPCs, this whole chapter had the mane six getting a _lot_ more help than from NPCs than in any previous chapter. _The_ reason that Satallion's trap didn't work was because Twilight's family showed up and set up their forcefields. Really, there wasn't _any_ direct assistance in battle from NPCs before this, and adding that NPC support in really gives the story a "you are here" feel to it-there's real teamwork and a feeling of camaraderie. Kind of reminds me of the scene from Kingdom Hearts 2 where Belle is being held hostage by a guy giving the Beast a sadistic choice: either the Beast loses the magic rose, or he loses Belle. Belle thought fast (and acted fast), slugging the bad guy in the gut, stealing the rose in the split-second he was reeling from it, and running back to the castle with the rose in hand, leaving you and the Beast to handle the bad guy. That scene left me feeling like I was surrounded by awesome and had become awesome myself. In the same game, the boss fight with Hades where you, Hercules, and Auron take on the deity of death has a similar feel to it. And I'm hoping this fight would give the player the same feeling. I'd like to add that I had some ideas in my mind that Cadence would be throwing some spells around during the boss fight with Nightmare Moon, perhaps healing you up or using her telekinesis to pick enemy unicorn guards up and jam them into the ground horn-first to keep them from being a threat. But, of course, I didn't actually write those elements into this fic's boss battle with Nightmare Moon. Having her summon minions would also add complexity to the boss fight...or it would add complexity if she had exactly two minions who stayed in the fight, but could be uncorrupted to distract her...

Oh...another one:

20) Name one of the royal guards "Firewall" as a shout-out to Through The Eyes Of Another Pony, especially if he's a miniboss or part of the Nightmare Moon boss right.

I should add: having Nightmare Moon as the final boss of this chapter is also another classic trait of fan-games. And she is a powerful final boss, with lightning, corruption-given magic, flocks of bats to use as a projectile attack-I'd say the list goes on, but in this case, it really doesn't. The battle is different from other boss battles in a few respects; first of all, unlike Gilda and Trixie, she wasn't corrupted willfully, so she didn't have the ability to learn from her mistakes (or purple eyes). Secondly, her "health bar" (well, corruption bar) keeps going up over time: if you don't keep the pressure up with Twilight's arrows, she will heal completely and undo all the damage you've done. (Though from Twilight's POV, you're _healing _damage, not doing damage.) I _hope_ that the battle was sufficiently epic to do her justice; if not, well, that's just another change that can be made to help adapt it into a game.

Which reminds me: another thought that I had as I was writing Shining Armor and Princess Cadence into this was that they should be playable, too. (I could still preserve the Twilight's-family-saves-the-day aspect of the NM boss fight by having her mother make one forcefield, and her father make the other.) Shining Armor is the captain of the guard, and his magic is powerful enough to put a deflector shield around all of Canterlot. Think about that for a moment: he's one organic creature, probably not much bigger than a Great Dane, and he can project a forcefield around a _whole city_. And it takes the repeated and continuous attacks of a whole _army_ to break said forcefield. That's pretty stinking badass. Not to mention that he and Cadence were also powerful enough to send out a _selective_ repelling spell that knocked all the changelings clear over the horizon, while _still_ leaving the buildings and ponies alone, _and_ that spell _also_ covered the whole city! That more than qualifies for _combat_ magic. With a miles-wide area of effect and range. ...Wow. (Now I want him as my World of Warcraft mount!) Given all this, I'd say it's safe to assume that he's one of the best battle-mages in the length and breadth of Equestria, if not _the_ best. So it would be pretty stinking awesome to play as him, wouldn't it?

Cadence hasn't shown much along the lines of sheer badassery, other than empowering her husband (well, he was her fiancé at the time) enough to send out that repulsor blast while he was exhausted. Still, she can fly, and she's got love-based magic. I could see her being an airborne Jack of All Stats, having decent health (though not as much as Derpy), decent speed (though not as much as Rainbow Dash), and decent attack options (though not as good as Fluttershy's). And her magic could probably the cure corruption as well, since corruption is hate-based, and her magic is love-based. In other words, she'd basically be a version of Twilight that could fly, probably having a lower rate of fire than Twilight to keep things a little balanced. While that's not as inherently awesome as Shining Armor, it's still well worth getting. Probably C would be Cadence's key, and G would be Shining Armor's.

The S key-I'd _like_ to reserve that for Soarin, but let's face it: a game like this, to reach maximum awesomeness potential, would just plain and simple _have_ to have Spike as a playable character. He's just too popular _not_ to! Q or W would probably have to suffice for Soarin, if he becomes playable. Or N, if I was really desperate.

This has some problems of its own, though: wouldn't it be dangerous for Spike to use his fire-breath on ponies? ...If I said the fire was magic, and that, thanks to the Spell of Unity, it could selectively burn the corruption without burning the ponies, then that would be another thing. (As a shout-out to World of Warcraft, I'd have to have him say, "I'll cleanse whatever corruption I can"; Alexstrasza says that during the Deathwing fight.) Another alternative: his fire could give whatever ponies he uses it on an ashen face for a moment, stunning them for a split second, giving him _just_ enough time to dig into the ground and escape their notice. In any case, we've actually seen Spike in combat before; he's remarkably badass when he needs to be-dream sequence or not. He'd probably have immunity to fire damage, and a ton of health, since he has such thick scales. ...It's hard to think of a role for him; he might be even more of a Mighty Glacier than Applejack; you'd expect him to be slower than ponies because, well, they're horses: they're _supposed_ to be fast. Perhaps I should make his attack be sucky, but workable, and then make him into a Stone Wall instead (high defense, low offense, and slow). If he were the Stone Wall, I guess that would make Applejack tankier than most of them, but not as tanky as Spike. I guess that's a decent enough position for her; after all, I had Pinkie Pie in a somewhat similar position. I guess with seven playable characters, you're going to inevitably end up with an overall spectrum of tanky vs. squishy, and having only one character per role is a bit much to ask when we're at seven characters.

Another thought about Spike: maybe it should be an option whether to take him along as a playable character. Having him as an NPC would also be helpful in a lot of ways; for example, I mentioned it earlier in the chapter 3 notes about what he could do if the mane six had escorted Zecora back to Ponyville (not that he couldn't have done it while he was a party member, too). Alternatively, just having him ride on the back of whichever pony is in physical form might help the player spot where their pony is quickly. ...At this point, I'm almost worried about being involved in a collaboration to make this into a game, because deciding what to do with Spike isn't going to be an easy decision. At all. And I'd almost undoubtedly have to help make that decision if I were involved.

...Oh, well. I still would LOVE to team up with some bronies to make this game; the process just wouldn't be _all_ rainbows, butterflies, and brohoofs.

...Alternatively, I could think of something after I wrote the above, and decide to keep the above line, because it looks just too awesome _not_ to keep it.

Here's an idea: have Spike as a Stone Wall, and, just like in the Dog and Pony Show episode, he digs up any gems Rarity finds with her magic. (In this narrative, Rarity's magic both found _and _dug up the gems; that works perfectly if we leave Spike out of it. But on the show, she could find gems just fine, but had to have someone else dig them up.) Of course, this setup means that getting gems requires more work from the player, so each gem should probably be more rewarding: heart-gems, rather than healing only one heart's worth of health, should heal a pony completely. And there should be several ammo-gems per dig, too. Or maybe there should be several gems per dig, and each gem can be either ammo or healing. Or maybe there should be a synthesis process mini-game that lets you turn smaller ammo-gems into heart-gems or sunstones (i.e. extra lives). It's up in the air, and just about anything could work.


	5. Chapter 5: The Price of Victory

Chapter 5:

Twilight's family clustered tightly around her as she walked with Celestia up to the castle. They were walking fairly slowly-she and Celestia were both very tired from adventuring all day. For a long time, they said nothing; they just slowly walked up the steps into the palace, through the main hall, toward the audience chamber.

Servants and ladies-in-waiting were scurrying here and there, trying to make sure everything that needed to happen would happen-their Princess had to be comfortable, the meals had to be ready, all the generals and nobles had to be informed and greeted made ready for. Just being around all that hustle and bustle and having to have her mind process it all was making Twilight all the more tired; even though she didn't have to lift a hoof to do any of the work, she felt as tired as if she had to do all of it, herself. She noted that the adventuring throughout the day had taken its toll on her, and probably on her friends, too. But then again, they had liberated three cities and destroyed a core deep in the woods. Maybe, just maybe, they could afford several hours of rest so that she and her friends could get some sleep.

On the other hand, maybe it was more like they couldn't afford to _not_ take several hours off to sleep. After all, only the Elements of Harmony can destroy cores, and if the bearers of those elements aren't in good shape, the Elements won't work.

Twilight's thoughts were interrupted as she heard Cadence, who was walking between herself and Celestia, say, "Aunt Tia, I've never seen you this angry, before. What's wrong?"

Twilight remembered how angry Celestia had been at the top of Cloudsdale and found, to her horror, that she was _glad_ for once that she couldn't see Celestia's face. ...Twilight tried not to be so horrified-partly because some small corner of her heart told her it wasn't really wrong to not want to see Celestia angry, but mostly because she was too tired for any more horror.

Celestia answered softly, "I'm sorry, Cadence, it's just that...I'm finally putting things together in my mind about what's really going on. I just remembered a dream I had when I was a young mare that I tried so hard to forget-and I succeeded a little too well. There's a lot to tell-please, wait to hear it until the nobles and the palace guard are assembled; it's a painful story, and I'd rather not tell it twice."

Twilight looked ahead and saw a huge pile of pillows and a few blankets stacked up where the throne would normally be. Thank goodness the castle's staff had realized that Celestia and her friends needed to rest, and had planned accordingly! Celestia lay down on the pillows, and Twilight took off her sweater, pulled a blanket over her shoulders, and sat down next to Celesta just as she finished weaving the radar spell again. Celestia beckoned her to snuggle up to her side, and Twilight did-something in her mind objected, something made her feel like it was disrespectful, and she was even a little frightened by her mentor, now-but Twilight knew better than to listen to that part of her mind. Celestia whispered to her, "We don't do this often enough, Twilight." Twilight silently nuzzled her back in agreement, but she was a little too tired to answer.

There were already a few nobles and generals sitting down in a semicircle in the audience chamber, but the seats weren't all full-it would still be some time before the meeting could start. The food Celestia had ordered was ready, though, and she took the time she had to eat quickly before she had to speak.

Twilight ate at a slower pace; the servant who had brought the tray out to her had to keep holding it up with his horn magic, since the pillows didn't give them a place to set the tray down. Twilight was so tired that she could hardly do more than pick at her food; she'd gotten so used to being hungry over the course of the day that she almost didn't feel like eating, anymore. But tedious as it was, she kept forcing herself to keep taking bites, keep chewing, and keep swallowing. She knew she'd need her strength-whether she'd need it in the morning, or in the next hour.

As soon as she was done, she switched out with Rarity, rested her spirit orb on the pillows under Celestia's blanket, and tried to get herself into the entranced state she'd been in for a few hours in Everfree. Perhaps she succeeded for a little while; she was only half-aware of the remaining nobles and generals filing into the room, of Celestia clearing her throat, apologizing for not getting up to speak, and telling the story of how she and Twilight and Twilight's friends had beaten back the cores, the corruption, the elementals-how Celestia's secrets had been revealed, how Satallion now knew her weaknesses, and how all of Cloudsdale had forgiven her for using pegasi for weather control. She added what she knew of the weaknesses of the corruption, how it was easy to detect, the tactics that had worked, and how Satallion wasn't actually able to give his thralls direct commands remotely. It was all information Twilight already knew. But when Celestia said, "And I am finally beginning to see a bigger picture," Twilight couldn't stay asleep; she had to wake up and listen to this-it was something she _didn't_ already know:

"When I was a young mare-shortly after Nightmare Moon took Luna away from me, but before I used the Elements to banish her-I had a dream. A dream that, at the time, I thought was a nightmare and merely a figment of my imagination. But now I realize that it was a real visitation by the personification of _everything_ I have stood against _all my life_. A creature resembling an alicorn with black fur, two horns and a fiery mane approached me, calling himself Satallion. He told me that, when a pony who has lived in hate perishes, their hatred lives on and consumes their soul. That hatred wanders about in darkness and void until it combines with the hatred of other souls, and the longer ponykind exists, the more souls combine. Eventually, this mass of hatred developed a will and identity of its own, and this alicorn-shaped demon I saw in my dream claimed to _be _that amalgamated hate."

The Princess was getting more and more upset as she told this story. "He told me that Nightmare Moon was using the power of hate, and that the only way I could overcome her was to use the power of hate, as well. He promised me that, if I would cast a spell to bring him into the material plane, he would give me all the power I needed to defeat her and more. I asked him why he wanted to enter the material plane, and he told me..." The Princess trailed off and swallowed hard. Twilight braced herself for what would follow: she knew it would be disturbing. "He told me that he wanted to seed the living with hate so he could consume their souls. He said that he was beginning to get hungry, because fewer and fewer ponies were perishing with hate in their hearts."

Pinkie, who had scarfed down her dinner in one impossibly large gulp, interrupted: "Is that because you'd been ruling as Princess for a while, by then?"

Celestia looked at Pinkie for a moment, then a look of dawning realization spread across her face. Her face, which had been darkened by terror, guilt, rage, and horror for so long, brightened with awe as she realized something amazing, something wonderful-something _big_. She whispered, "Yes...yes, Luna and I had been ruling for twenty-three years when this happened. If he was telling the truth, then..."

Pinkie happily, and with childlike ignorance, continued, "If he was telling the truth, then just by being around, you were always reminding all the ponies to live in harmony and not to get mad at each other or act all mean like they did when those Windigoes were everywhere, so they could go to pony heaven instead of to _him_!"

Celestia slowly looked down at Pinkie with an unreadable expression. She was in some kind of shock. Again. Twilight thought about why, and realized that Celestia had just been hit with the realization of just how _good_ for all ponykind she really was. She always strived to be the best Princess she could be, and that was partly out of a relentless pursuit of self-improvement, and partly out of duty to her people. But never once had it occurred to her that, just by being a constant reminder of goodness, just by being something and some_one_ that all of ponykind could unite under, _she had been_ _changing the eternal destiny of a_ _whole race_ _for the better_! The thought of that amount of sheer _goodness_-stemming from Celestia just _being who she was_, no less-was staggering.

Then it hit Twilight that she was one of the closest friends of the Princess: she was helping to make her life happier-the life of a being whose very _existence _had changed the destiny of ponykind forever for the better! Twilight suddenly felt like everything around her was _far_ more amazing than she'd ever realized, like the very floors she walked on were made of gold, the sky above her was one giant sapphire, and she herself-though she didn't always feel like it or act like it-was an angel in the presence of the gods.

It was a heady, overwhelming feeling for Twilight. And Twilight guessed Celestia felt the same way. It was surprising that Pinkie didn't feel the same awe and shock of the sheer _hugeness_ of the implications of what they were discussing: the eternities of millions, probably _billions_ of ponies were changed from horror and agony to bliss and love, all because of this one mare's faithfulness! But then again, Twilight realized, this was the blessing of being able to look at things simply: to Pinkie, this was good. That was all she thought, and it was all she needed to think as far as she was concerned. Pinkie was able to simply rejoice in that goodness, or in any other goodness, whatever its magnitude-and that was more than enough for her.

For a few minutes, Twilight dwelt on these thoughts of goodness, immensity, and simplicity. But as wonderful as it all was, there was more to be discussed in that meeting. Celestia and she were thinking as one, it seemed, but Celestia took a moment to nuzzle Pinkie and said, "...Thank you for pointing that out, Pinkie-I needed something to cheer me up after thinking about that nightmare, but...I must continue.

"_If _Satallion was telling the truth, then his whole purpose is to consume ponykind with his corruption. The corruption's real purpose is to force the souls of whoever perishes while under his influence into becoming _food _for him. His goal isn't political conquest, or even to build an army; those are merely accidental to his true purpose: it's to turn all of Equestria into a farm of hate-a farm that breeds only spiteful souls for him to consume."

Twilight shuddered at the thought; this was as awful as the Princess had seemed wonderful moments ago. What felt like a jeweled sky above her and a golden land around her suddenly became a dark, bleak wasteland. She could tell from the reactions of the council that they were just as horrified as she was.

"What makes it even worse," Celestia continued, "Was that Nightmare Moon was a part of his plan to do this _all along_." Celestia slowly became angrier and angrier as she explained the horrific puzzle she had finally solved: "He somehow corrupted Luna into becoming Nightmare Moon, and he put an impossible decision in front of me: either summon him to the land of the living, or feel the pain of losing my sister for a _thousand years_!" Celestia began to lose her composure and she became angrier and angrier. "There is no curse, no insult equal to the task of denouncing his evil! He _always_ gives his enemies difficult choices; I watched him do it to my student, and he did it to me, too! He made me banish Luna to the moon for a thousand years-he stole away from me my sister, the dearest thing to my heart and the _only_ other alicorn who will live forever to keep me company through my eternal vigil over ponykind! She was like my other half; we did EVERYTHING together, and _he_ _took her AWAY FROM ME_!" Celestia stopped and tried to compose herself.

Hearing the Princess's voice grow angrier and angrier was absolutely bone-chilling to Twilight. She tried to remind herself that Celestia wasn't angry at _her_, she was angry at a cruel demon with horrible, horrible plans for everything Twilight had ever loved. When Twilight thought about it, she realized that anypony who _doesn't_ get angry at him has something wrong with her! _Of course_ Celestia is angry at him! But Celestia's anger still terrified Twilight, and her fear absolutely _refused_ to disappear in a puff of logic. Twilight barely managed to avoid screaming or whimpering; in her heart, she was clinging on for dear life to the knowledge that she loved the Princess and the Princess loved her.

Luna spoke up softly: "Sister...the fault is also mine; I entertained the whisperings of resentment he sent to my mind-"

Celestia interrupted, her tone much softer, "I forgave you for that a thousand years ago, Luna."

Twilight felt more than a little relieved to hear the Princess's normal, caring tones, and it was heartwarming to know that Celestia had always wanted healing between her and her sister-if she knew what Twilight was feeling, she'd want healing there, too, and Twilight knew it. But the fear still lingered inside Twilight, like suffocating smoke from an extinguished fire.

After a few more moments of silence, Shining Armor stepped forward. "Princess, this is the direst threat to our land that anyone on this council has ever heard of, let alone _faced_. We need to find and destroy this demon, but given what you've told us, my troops will never be able to stand up to his evil unless the Spell of Unity is placed on them. Give the word, and we'll gather together every able-bodied unicorn wizard and enchantress to cast that spell on our army; within the hour, we can have a hundred teams to search every part of Equestria for this menace! We can round up volunteers from the populace if we have to-"

"Search parties won't be necessary, Captain," Celestia interrupted. "If he's still anywhere in Equestria, then the radar spell will find him. If he has one weakness, it's that he and his machinations are easily detectable with the radar's magic."

"I still think we should have the Spell of Unity placed on our army; once we know where he is, we'll need it to be able to fight him and _bring him down_."

Celestia shook her head. "Only the Elements of Harmony have been able to destroy his cores; it's a foregone conclusion that nothing less will be able to either destroy or banish Satallion himself. Once we know where he is, I and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony will need to set out _immediately _to destroy him."

"Princess, please-I don't think that's a good idea at all. Don't get me wrong; I have every confidence in Twilight and her friends. They've saved Equestria from threats that all the might of the military couldn't stand up to, and they've done it more than once. But they're exhausted; my troops are fresh and ready to serve our nation.

"Please, Princess, give our army a chance to hold him off! I can assemble a team of the fastest pegasi, the strongest earth ponies, the most powerful unicorns-even if they can't stop him outright, they can at least keep him busy or slow him down long enough for you to rest! Then you can face him after you've rested-by then, we might even have the intelligence to make sure the whole fight is on _your_ terms when you _do_ face him!"

Celestia shook her head again. "Tempting as it is, that plan doesn't make sense. What would your army do if they found him planting a new core? They wouldn't have any means of destroying it or slowing down his conquest of new lands. I'd _love_ to leave this in your hooves and get a good night's rest-for myself, _and_ for my six friends. But the fact is, the army wouldn't even be able to slow him down."

At that moment, the radar came back. Twilight's mother-who Twilight had forgotten was present-walked up to it, as did a number of other expert wizards and enchantresses. They examined the radar, and Twilight's mother gasped. "The negative energy this spell picked up is off the charts, your highness! Nothing short of the Elements of Harmony could possibly counter it!"

Celestia looked at the radar, and noted aloud, "He's in the northern wastes, far from civilization." She sighed sadly. "We need to end this war against him quickly; his influence can spread exponentially-there is no choice; we must go and face him _now_.

She turned to Captain Shining Armor and, while he was still inhaling to protest, she said, "I know you want to go with us, but you cannot-we can't risk you falling into his hooves again. Besides, if our attack fails-well, let me put it this way: Satallion isn't the _only_ one who can make elaborate plans to subvert his enemies."

She turned to the assembled nobles and generals. "Have all of Equestria, from Los Pegasos to Phillydelphia, gather up all their harvests and food stockpiles and move into Canterlot-this is an evacuation." She turned to Shining Armor. "Once they're inside, set up a forcefield around Canterlot to _keep him out_. And take every precaution that he doesn't find a way to sneak in during the evacuation, _or_ through the caves beneath the city." She turned to Luna. "If we fail and perish in our attempt to destroy him, then the Elements of Harmony will revert back to you-you will be their sole wielder; you must use them to destroy Satallion! He will ultimately _have_ to attack Canterlot for his plans to come to fruition-evacuating the population here forces him into a bottleneck, and he won't know that you have the Elements. When he comes here, you can destroy him!"

Luna's face went pale at the thought. "Don't talk like that! Tia, you'll _come back alive_!"

Celestia looked at Twilight's spirit orb with a warm smile, then at Cadence, then back at Luna, then she seemed to stare off at something in the distance that wasn't quite present-she shut her eyes in rapture, and sighed happily. "_Nopony_ who has _ever_ lived in all of Equestria has more to live for than me, Luna. I have every intention of coming back to you and Equestria alive. But I need to take precautions for any and every possibility."

Luna rushed up to Celestia and buried her face in her shoulder, sobbing. "Please...don't leave me to rule alone forever!"

Celestia nuzzled her back. "One way or another, you _won't_ be alone, Luna. You'll have the fealty of every pony in Equestria, and if worse comes to worse, you can do what I did-pick a pupil from my School for Gifted Unicorns once a generation, and you will _always _have somepony close to your heart. It's how I kept my heart from growing cold over the last thousand years."

"But I am a thousand miles away from the hearts of our people, and cannot even understand them!"

"The deck was also stacked against me when you-when Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon, and I was alone to rule Equestria. Granted, I had Aunt Platinum and Starswirl to teach me what was necessary to rule a kingdom, but I had a lot to learn, and a lot of mistakes to make. But I worked through those mistakes, learned from them, and I grew into the Princess I am today, and I _know_ you're capable of doing the same. Besides, even if some of the people harbor suspicion in their hearts, you will win them back when you wield the Elements to destroy Satallion."

Luna sobbed, then answered, "_You_ will destroy Satallion and come back to me alive; let them _all_ be suspicious of me as long as they live!"

Celestia hesitated for a moment. Apparently, she decided to take Luna's words as a sign of her love and devotion; she smiled and said, "Very well. Keep these precautions in place, but there is one last thing: make sure the baths are ready for us..._when_ we get back. It's been a long, hard, sweaty adventure, and I'm looking forward to a nice, hot bath before bed."

Luna nodded vehemently. "It'll be ready for you to wade right in; there'll be a dozen-nay, a _score _of servants to scrub every inch of you clean as a whistle-you won't have to raise a hoof!"

"Then I'll want to be ready to go in the moment I come back." Celestia slipped her gold crown, her necklace, and her shoes off, and laid them on the pillows. "If I take them off now, then I won't have to bother after the battle."

Luna nodded vigorously.

Twilight looked at Celestia without the jewels on, and somehow, she looked different...her fur was white and featureless, her hair looked a little bit messier, though still enchantedly waving with the colors of the dawn. She looked almost like a normal pony, only taller.

Celestia looked at the jewels she'd laid aside, and added, "Luna-if I don't come back, I want _you_ to wear them."

"You _will_ come back!" Luna insisted.

Celestia continued, "And if I don't come back, I want you to take the title of Queen. I...I made the decision not take that title a thousand years ago. Aunt Platinum almost begged me to, but I knew that, if I did, I'd be elevating myself above you-you' d be a princess and I'd be Queen. I didn't want to give you _any _reason to be jealous when you finally came back and the prophecy came true, so I kept the title of Princess all these years. But if there is only one of us, then there's no reason _not_ to take the title of Queen. And you deserve it; you were always the better-behaved of the two of us. Sometimes, it seemed like you only ever got into trouble because I dragged you along..." Celestia's sentence trailed off. "...Actually...I've spent the last thousand years trying to be more like _you_."

Luna stayed silent, looking up into Celestia's eyes. "Come back!" she finally sobbed.

It dawned on Twilight that the thought of Celestia disappearing from her life forever was as terrifying to Luna as the thought of her being angry was to Twilight-it was nearly soul-splitting terror to them, enough to make them refuse to believe things, or keep them from _ceasing_ to think about things. Twilight began to wonder whether everypony there was somehow crazy in one way or another...but even if they were all crazy, the fact that they cared about each other was enough to hold each pony's mind together in one piece. And it would be enough to keep them together as a team, too.

Celestia kissed her sister and whispered, "I'll come back." The two of them sat for one last moment, holding each other. They sat in silence, each knowing that it could be the last time they'd be together.

Twilight noted it could be the same with her and her parents, so she switched out and rested her head on her parents' shoulders. Cadence and Shining Armor joined the moment, and walked up to her as well, resting their heads on Twilight's shoulders.

Twilight whispered, "If...anything happens to me...make sure Spike has a home. And tell him I'm sorry I couldn't see him again, or even send him a letter to tell him I'm all right-it's just been too hectic...fighting...all day!"

Twilight's mother nodded. "We'll make sure he has a place to stay. He'll be all right."

Shining Armor whispered, "Take care of the Princess for me, sis."

"I will," she sniffled back.

Finally, Twilight sensed that it was time for her to face the abyss. She wasn't afraid of _that_, not anymore: after seeing Celestia angry, she felt like this demon would be nothing in the comparison. She took a step back toward the Princess, and her family backed away from her. She turned to Celestia, and she, too, was ready to let go and face Satallion.

Twilight swallowed hard, and asked her friends, still in spirit form, "Everypony ready?"

Rainbow Dash shouted, "We're ready for _anything_ this demon has to throw at us!"

"We'll find a way to beat him, one way or another," Rarity pointed out. "Even if we don't survive our first attempt, all that will happen is a sunstone will get consumed, and we'll be able to try again!"

Celestia froze for a moment, lost in thought. She stamped her hoof in frustration and snarled to herself, "_Why_ didn't I order every sunstone in the palace brought here…?!"

Shining Armor shouted, "I'll collect them _personally_ if it-"

"_Enough_, Captain. I know you hate feeling useless in this crisis, but I assure you that you're _far_ from useless. And there's no time; we must depart _now_."

Shining Armor nodded. "But if there's _anything_ we can do for you-even the _smallest thing_-please, let us know."

"Don't worry, we will," Celestia said. She took one final look at Luna, sighed sadly, then looked to the council and said, "You all have your orders. Dismissed!" With that, she disappeared in a flash.

They reappeared in a wasteland that appeared to be full of lava and steam. Twilight felt like the shock of going from the frosty cold of Canterlot to the boiling heat of this volcanic caldera was awful-that, and the sheer stench of sulfur from the lava made her wonder whether she was in hell, or in a sewer. "What _is_ this?" Twilight screamed.

Celestia herself sneezed the stench out of her nostrils. "All this must be the work of Satallion's magic; there isn't a volcano anywhere _near_ Equestria!"

Twilight shuddered, despite the heat. "At least he did this in the wilderness; imagine if he'd done this someplace where ponies lived! ...Wait a minute: why _didn't_ he do this someplace where ponies lived?"

Something clicked in Celestia's mind. "Maybe he isn't nearly as powerful as he'd like us to believe! If he tried this anywhere near civilization, we'd throw everything we had at him to stop him. If he chose to change the landscape _here_ as opposed to near a town specifically to avoid that, then that means our military might actually have a chance against him!"

"Ya reckon we should we call the army after all?" Applejack asked.

Celestia shook her head. "It's still not worth the risk. He could have some other reason for creating a volcano here that we haven't thought of, yet."

"Where is he?" Twilight asked, trying to look around everywhere, even up, to see if she could spot anything that looked like a black, fiery alicorn.

Celestia's nose wrinkled. "I can sense his general presence north of us, but there's no telling what we'll find if we teleport there directly. There may be no solid ground, and it would be exactly like him to trick us into teleporting into a lake of fire. No-we're going to have to either walk or fly there."

Celestia switched back into spirit form, and Twilight began looking for ways to travel north. She looked at a bridge over a pool of lava, and shouted to her friends, "Listen-I know that in books, if one of the characters is close to lava, they're okay as long as they don't touch the lava. But it's not like that in real life; lava makes the _air_ dangerously hot, too, so if we go anywhere near or above the lava, we're going to have to make it _very_ quick-and we should hold our breath, too."

Rainbow Dash switched out, held her breath, and zoomed over the bridge to the other side-and found that the valley below them was seething with elementals.

"Of course," Twilight grumbled, switching out. She did her best to dodge as dark arrows came flying at her, and she fired back as best she could. "He might know we're here," Twilight thought aloud.

"He's got to; we would've sensed the radar," Celestia thought aloud. "We need to proceed with caution."

Rarity switched out and hurled ice crystals at the elementals. "I'd better use these up while I still can; it's not cold enough for these to stay solid, anymore!" she thought aloud. Sure enough, the elementals she hit were frozen, and the rest of them began shooting the icy prisons to free the trapped ones. That took pressure off of Twilight and let her shoot the distracted elementals. Rarity had to switch out to freeze more of them several times before the field was cleared of elementals, but they cleared it.

Breathing heavily, Twilight croaked, "Rainbow Dash, get us there as fast as you can!"

"_Right_!" she shouted back, switching out and flying as quickly as she could to the north.

"How far do we need to go?" Applejack asked.

"It'll be less than four miles," Celestia answered. "Keep your eyes open; he could have any number of traps waiting for us."

Twilight looked into the distance and down at the ground-the more she thought about it, the more she thought that an ambush of some kind was the perfect way for Satallion to respond to their presence. It would have to be something they wouldn't expect, something dastardly. But that's just it; they _were_ expecting an ambush. How could he surprise them if they were _expecting to be surprised_? ...Twilight tried to think back to every book she'd read where a brilliant tactician tried to take an enemy by surprise, and she began to see a pattern as her tired brain unearthed example after example from her memory: the way you surprise someone who's expecting a surprise is to find _a way_ to surprise them that they_ didn't _expect. Then Twilight realized that they were looking straight ahead and down, expecting to see an army of elementals or some ponies still under his thrall at wherever it was that the radar had found him. But they weren't looking to the sides or above them or behind them!

Twilight swung her spirit orb behind Rainbow Dash's back to see if she could spot any enemies closing in from behind, and made a mental note to speak up about what she'd just thought, so that her friends and Celestia could look to the sides or sky. With seven pairs of eyes between them, they'd be sure to spot any threat long before it would be a problem-

Her thoughts were interrupted at the sight of a violet-eyed griffon charging them from behind, talons poised to shred Rainbow Dash's wings as soon as she was close enough! "BEHIND US!" Twilight screamed. "It's Gilda!"

Rainbow Dash peeled off to the side in a dizzying, unpredictable series of barrel rolls and loop-de-loops. She landed in a large open area near the shore of a lava lake and snorted up at Gilda.

"You spotted me?" Gilda asked. "Aww-and I was thinking you weren't gonna make this _fun_!" Gilda began gesturing at the air, and clouds of volcanic ash began swirling and flashing lightning at them. Celestia tried to stifle a whimper, but Gilda heard it. "Whassa matter, _scared_ of a little _lightning_?" she taunted Celestia.

Rainbow Dash charged at her through the air, screaming, "NO ONE DOES THAT TO THE PRINCESS!"

"Rainbow Dash, _stop_!" Twilight shouted.

"She's _tryin'_ ta make ya act without thinkin'!" Applejack shouted.

Rainbow Dash apparently took that advice to heart, because she suddenly stopped, launched a tornado at Gilda, and veered back to the ground. And it wasn't a moment too soon, either: a dark ballista bolt went flying up at the place where Dash had been flying towards seconds ago! They looked, at it had come from Trixie.

Rainbow Dash swallowed hard. Twilight shared the sentiment.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is willing to accept your surrender _now_!" Trixie bellowed.

"Accept this!" Rarity shouted back, hurling ice at Trixie. Trixie launched the ice back at Rarity with a burst of magic, and Rarity was just barely quick enough to dodge away.

Gilda charged them, while Trixie remained at a safe distance and hurled assorted blasts of magic at them. Rarity tried hurling ice at Gilda, and it looked like it had worked, as it locked Gilda's talon in ice-but then she just began using the ice's hard surface as a fist weapon, and struck Rarity a telling blow across the face!

Rarity screamed, and Applejack switched out. She kicked Gilda solidly in the belly, and hurled her lasso up at Gilda, securely snaring her neck. Applejack did her best to dodge out of the way of Trixie's magic, and yanked Gilda down out of the sky with all her might. Gilda landed in a heap on the rocky ground, and Twilight switched out and blasted Gilda with as many arrows as she could, all while dodging this way and that to keep Trixie from hitting her.

Trying to buy them more time, Twilight shouted, "Pinkie, party cannon!"

Gilda groaned. She started to say "Not this agai-" but the fly paper had covered her mouth, too.

"Rarity, more ice!" Twilight added, and Rarity switched out and covered Gilda in as much ice as she could. That was it: Gilda was completely immobilized.

They turned their attention to Trixie, who was now charging at them, surrounded by an aura of magic. Rarity tried hurling ice at Trixie, but the ice shattered before it could touch her. Pinkie switched out and jumped over Trixie, trying to hit her with her party cannon, but the fly paper just incinerated. Trixie slammed into Gilda and shattered most of her bonds, then cast some kind of shield around Gilda while she began pounding at the ice and fly strips with her magic to break Gilda out.

"Fluttershy!" Twilight shouted. Fluttershy switched out and sent a flock of bats flying at Trixie and Gilda, and Trixie immediately began swatting at the bats. Twilight switched out and tried to fire arrows at Trixie, but the shield blocked the arrows. Twilight snorted, and began to wonder whether Satallion had anticipated _everything_ that she and her friends would be able to do, and had a countermeasure for everything-but then she realized that couldn't be the case, because Gilda had been completely immobilized: that wouldn't have happened if Satallion had been able to see _everything _coming.

Twilight decided something else might be worth a try: "Applejack!" she shouted. Applejack switched out, flung her lasso around Trixie's neck, and pulled as hard as she could, spinning Trixie around. Trixie seemed to be in a daze, and Twilight quickly switched out and fired as many arrows as she could at Trixie.

Trixie came to her senses before Twilight could finish, and just as she did, Gilda broke the last of her bonds and took off. Twilight snorted to herself as she realized she should've had Pinkie or Rarity immobilize Trixie while they had the chance, and now that they know what their tricks are, it'll be harder to beat them-they'll have learned! But then again, Twilight realized, Gilda already knew about the party cannon and Rarity's crystal prisons, and those had worked against her: they could dodge, but that didn't necessarily mean they wouldn't _ever_ get hit.

Still, it was two against one, and that wasn't good.

Gilda and Trixie seemed to switch tactics: both of them began firing magic on them from afar: Gilda from high above, and Trixie from far away on the ground. Twilight did her best to dodge, but shouted for Rainbow Dash to switch out and dodge for her, since she was more agile. While Rainbow was flying left, right, up, and down to stay away from the dark spears and waves that were flying at them, Twilight tried to think-would could they do to distract Gilda or Trixie enough to get an opening? It's true that Trixie and Gilda had more of their minds working than most corrupted creatures; they could learn from their mistakes. But some corruption-behaviors were still in place; the drive to spread the corruption was still strong. So maybe if Fluttershy sent more uncorrupted bats...? "Fluttershy!" Twilight shouted, and Fluttershy knew what to do: she sent as many bats as she could at Gilda and Trixie, and sure enough, they were distracted. Twilight whispered for Rainbow Dash to blast Gilda with a tornado while she was busy, and she did-once again, Gilda spun toward the ground and was too dizzy to react. Rarity and Pinkie quickly immobilized her again, and Twilight began firing arrow after arrow into Gilda.

Trixie reacted as expected, charging them to try to stop them from uncorrupting Gilda, and Twilight shouted for Fluttershy to send bats at Trixie to distract her. While she was distracted, Applejack again stunned her with her lasso, and Rarity and Pinkie immobilized her, too. Twilight fired arrow after arrow into Gilda to uncorrupt her, then began uncorrupting Trixie, too. Pinkie and Rarity had to switch out and refresh the fly strips and ice, but they managed to remove the corruption from them both.

Celestia didn't switch out, but she spoke up and commanded loudly, "All right, you two-answers, _now_! _Where _is Satallion?"

Twilight felt like her blood froze when she heard Celestia shout. But she knew it was directed at Gilda and Trixie, so she did her best not to show it.

"We don't know!" Gilda snarled back. "He was here a few minutes ago; when he sensed your radar, he moved on!"

"_Where_?!" Celestia demanded. She said it with such force that Twilight shuddered. She pretended she was sneezing the sulfurous stench of the lava out of her nose to hide her terror.

Trixie answered, "He was moving east, but that doesn't mean he didn't change direction as soon as he was out of sight."

There was a pause as Celestia thought of the next question to ask. Meanwhile, Twilight tried to think of something else besides her fear; she knew she should be angry at Trixie and Gilda, too. They were troublemakers, but she'd never have suspected they go as far as _treason_! Twilight started getting mad at them, herself, and that righteous anger was a refreshing departure from her fear. Indulging her rage, she demanded: "Why in Equestria are you both siding with _him_?! Do you even _know_ what he's doing to Equestria?!"

"I'll _tell_ you what he's doing: he's getting rid of all things namby-pamby!" Gilda sneered.

Rainbow Dash switched out and shouted at Gilda, "You think friendship and caring about your family and country is _namby-pamby_?! What! The only other way to live is to be alone and never care about anyone and never have anyone care about you. Is that _really_ how you want to live?!"

Gilda seemed to say "Is that really how you want to live?" back at Rainbow Dash through her nose.

Rainbow Dash bucked Gilda toward the lava lake, and she began rolling towards the slope-she didn't roll down it, but she was close enough to feel the heat.

"_Hey_!" she shouted. "That's _roasting_ hot! What're you trying to _do_?!"

"Nothing _you_ didn't try to do to _us_ just now!" Pinkie shot back.

"You-you'd do _that_ to your old _friend_?!" Gilda gasped.

Rainbow Dash was visibly shaken by that question-Twilight could tell that Gilda was trying to use Rainbow Dash's own loyalty against her. But Rainbow was sharp enough to see what Gilda was trying to do, too, and answered, "Helping a demon attack Equestria kinda disqualifies you from being one of _my_ friends-no...it _completely _disqualifies you." Rainbow Dash chuckled. "Besides, isn't playing the 'friend' card a just a _little_ namby-pamby?"

Gilda said nothing.

Celestia continued, "By helping Satallion, you've both committed a _dire_ act of treason that could _destroy _Equestria. I could have your heads for this! And don't think I'm so soft that I wouldn't dare; just ask DisQord how prepared I am to mete out dire punishments for dire crimes. So...tell me _everything_ you know. You'd be well-advised not to lie or hold anything back or make any attempt to trick us _whatsoever_, because if the information you give us leads us into a trap, then even if we should perish in that trap, the Spell of Unity _will_ revive us. Then I _will_ know that you were trying to work against us, and I assure you: I will have _plenty_ of opportunity to come back and make you pay _dearly_ for your treachery."

Trixie swallowed hard. "He...he said he has several backup plans for capturing you, and even now, he has elementals on their way here, just in case we failed to eliminate you."

"Then _talk faster_," Celestia firmly insisted. "How long have you been working for Satallion?"

"...Two months, now," Trixie answered. "He had me collect gems from anyplace in Equestria I could, and bring them here."

"_Why_?!"

"He said those gems were needed to create cores."

Twilight gasped. "_That_ was why he had special plans for Canterlot! The whole time we were there, we saw hints that he had something special planned. Well, he wanted the crystal caves beneath Canterlot so he could use the gems there to make more cores!"

"_Where_ is he creating them?" Celestia demanded.

"The only place I know of is a valley on the far west side of this caldera. That's the only place he ever had me deliver the gems, and I haven't seen them moved from there. He's got piles and piles of gems, and he's been funneling his magic into them. But the cores aren't ready to be placed, yet-it takes time for them to mature to the point where they're protected from regular magic. They'll keep the corruption working in a city just fine as they are, but in a few more days, they'll be immune to anything short of the Elements of Harmony!"

Celestia began weighing in her mind whether this was a trap or not. "Are they guarded?"

"Satallion would be a fool to leave these unfinished cores unguarded-and you already know by now that he is no fool. He had an army of elementals there last time I saw, but he could have more by now. Especially now that he knows you're here."

Twilight thought aloud, "We should go and destroy those cores. He knows when and where we use the radar, so if we rely on the radar, he'll be playing cat-and-mouse with us all day, just like he did with Nightmare Moon in Canterlot. Acting on our own initiative will mean that we're making _him_ react, instead!"

"What if it's a trap?" Fluttershy whimpered.

"Then the Spell of Unity will revive us," Rarity answered, "And it'll only-" Rarity stopped herself before she said it'll only cost a sunstone: they didn't want Gilda and Trixie to know _that_! So she finished her sentence: "It'll only _prove_ to us what we already _suspect_!"

"We cain't just leave Trixie and Gilda here," Applejack pointed out. "What if Satallion re-corrupts 'em and sends 'em after us again?"

Twilight pondered the question of what to do with them for a moment. Normally, she'd take them prisoner in a situation like this, but there was no prison to put them in or palace guards to hand them over to. And Applejack was right: leaving them there, bound and frozen in ice, wasn't an option: Satallion would easily be able to send them after her and her friends again as soon as the ice melted. But they had, at least apparently, been cooperative: dropping them into the lava couldn't be the right thing to do.

...Was there some creative third option? She'd thought of one when Satallion had her parents up to the ledge; she'd thought of one (albeit a drastic one) when they couldn't find the Cloudsdale core...was there a drastic solution here? ...What if Trixie and Gilda were somehow made so that they weren't any good to anypony, but nevertheless still alive? ...Twilight remembered the time when DisQord had removed her and Rarity's horns, and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash's wings. What if they could do something similar here...? "Princess, do you know a spell that will take away Trixie's horn and Gilda's wings?"

Trixie gasped, and Rarity gasped, too. This was _never_ used as punishment!

"No! _PLEASE_!" Trixie begged. "Not my _horn_! I'm _nothing_ with my magic!"

Celestia popped into physical form and glared down at Trixie with a look at would've made Twilight's blood run cold if she had been in physical form. "Then you shall _become nothing_ as a consequence for betraying Equestria!" With a single burst of magic, Trixie's horn disappeared. "And don't even _think_ you have a right to complain about this! It was _your own decision_ to fight for Satallion, and to face us _here_, where we have so few options available to us, that left us with the choice of either removing your horn or dropping you into the lava. _You forced our hooves_. Now, you can either run back to Canterlot and turn yourself in to the royal guards of Equestria, or consider yourself banished. Either way, if I _ever_ hear that you do _anything_ to harm Equestria again, you will pay for it _with your life_!"

Trixie could only cower and whimper before the enraged Princess. Twilight felt like she wanted to join her, but did her best to stay silent.

Celestia turned to Gilda, but only saw a puddle of quickly-evaporating water and shredded fly strips.

Rainbow Dash facehoofed. "The heat from the lava must've melted the ice! She escaped while we weren't looking!"

Twilight groaned and tried to shake off her terror; she remembered that she'd thought of this before. She spoke up: "While we were flying here, I realized we should always be looking in all directions to try to spot danger before it gets us, but...but I never said anything! If I'd just _said_ something, then one of us would've seen that she was getting away!"

"Now Satallion's gonna know what we're planning with those cores!" Rainbow Dash thought aloud. "We've gotta get there _now!_ Before he can send more troops there!"

Celestia switched back to spirit form, and Rainbow Dash bolted to the west, flying as fast as she could. This time, the rest of them were looking in all directions, even up and down, to try to spot danger before it happened. There were elementals coming after them, but they were far too slow to catch up with Rainbow Dash.

They were coming up on a pit that absolutely crackled with dark magic. Magical structures that looked like cores, only smaller, were being grown like trees in an orchard. A lot of them looked almost as big as the cores they had destroyed in Everfree and Ponyville; others looked so small, they could've been elementals.

"Land over by the big ones," Twilight thought aloud. "We should destroy those, first."

The core farm was seething with elementals, and they charged at Rainbow Dash as she landed. She hurled a tornado at the elementals, buying Rarity enough time to throw out the last of her ice crystals to freeze a few in place and keep them distracted.

Twilight switched out and fired arrows as quickly as she could at the nearest core. The core started to look unstable, then shrank out of existence and collapsed into a mess of scattered gems. Twilight smiled. "Let's destroy all of these!" Twilight switched out with Rarity and let her re-freeze a few more elementals in rock, and then she began blasting the next core, and the next one. After she had destroyed several cores, they saw bolts of magic fly down at them from above: Gilda was back, and just as powerful as ever. For a moment, Twilight asked herself how she could possibly fight Gilda _and_ all these elementals. But then Twilight decided that she didn't have to: there were so many heartstones scattered across the valley from the destroyed cores that she could easily and quickly heal herself of whatever Gilda threw at her. It would be painful, but Twilight realized she could outright _ignore_ Gilda and focus on destroying the cores.

Twilight did exactly that-but beyond that, the entire rest of the battle was a complete blur; Twilight was dodging this way and that way, never more than hoof's reach from a heartstone, always in pain, always scrambling to get a heartstone, always firing at the next core, always moving, always fighting, her mind racing, a blur of adrenaline. Before she realized what had happened, she had destroyed the last core, Gilda's rain of magic had stopped, and she had healed the last of her wounds with another heartstone.

Twilight had a hard time shaking off the adrenaline rush and coming back to her senses; the next thing she knew, she was in spirit form, and Rarity had frozen Gilda in a ruby prison. Celestia was shouting angrily at Gilda, and for a moment, Twilight was terrified that Celestia was mad at her, again. She saw the horrific memories replay in her mind of Celestia screaming at her at the top of Cloudsdale, and she just couldn't get it out of her head. She was so terrified, very little of the meaning behind Celestia's words filtered through her mind; all she heard "banish", "only reason I'm letting you _live_", and "might as well give DisQord a lollipop!" It slowly clicked in Twilight's mind that Celestia was screaming at Gilda, not at her, but it wasn't easy for Twilight to calm herself down-she felt like she was living in a nightmare, and it was so hard for her to concentrate; she was so tired, so frightened, so guilty, so very much in fight-or-flight mode that it was impossible for her to _think_!

All this was interrupted when she heard Celestia ask, "Are you all right, Twilight?"

Twilight yelped in fright.

Celestia gasped. "Twilight-please, say something!"

"I...I..." Twilight couldn't think of how to put her terror into words.

"Please, tell me you're all right, Twilight! Now is the _worst_ time for us to be losing our composure!"

Twilight struggled to think.

"Are you still in pain, Twilight?" Rarity asked, switching out. She brandished a large array of heart-gems. "Now that you've destroyed those cores, there are enough gems here to heal a hundred of you!"

"I...I'm not hurt," Twilight answered, finally able to form a sentence.

"Are you with us?" Celestia asked.

"Yes...yes, I'm with you," Twilight answered, her brain beginning to un-cramp. She tried very hard to reason about why she was feeling so awful, and suddenly, it hit her: Celestia screaming at her at the top of Cloudsdale may well have scarred her for life. Celestia's anger was to Twilight what rain was to Celestia: a trigger for terrible, terrible fear. And Twilight knew she might never get over this fear. It was an awful thought that Celestia, a source of comfort, joy, and pride for her, something so staggeringly wonderful-had suddenly become a source of terror for her.

It was too sickening to keep thinking about; Twilight needed to keep her thoughts focused on the present-she had to reconnect with reality, with her friends. What were they doing? ...They were trying to find and destroy Satallion. They came to this valley because they wanted to do damage to his plans and force him to react to something they were doing. They did damage his plans-amazing amounts of damage for how intelligent he was. Why hadn't he seen this coming? Did he not realize that the gems his destroyed cores left behind could heal them? Did he never suspect that Trixie would tell them about this core farm? For that matter, where _was_ Satallion? These thoughts were coherent enough, but Twilight still had to reconnect with her friends. So she tried to put forward the most intelligent question she could think of: "What do we do now?"

Applejack pointed out, "As soon as Twilight destroyed the last core, the elementals all disappeared. I guess they must depend on the cores as much as the corruption does."

"Ah-ha-ha!" Rarity laughed. "Satallion's lost _all_ his thugs; he's _weak_, now!"

Fluttershy said, "So...can we all go home and let the big, strong palace guards stop him?"

Celestia weighed the question. "There's still no telling just how powerful Satallion himself is. Keep in mind: destroying the cores did _not_ stop the volcanism in these wastes, so it must be a result of his magic that isn't related directly to the corruption. Granted, we now know the arrows of light can destroy incomplete cores, so any one of the more powerful unicorns in Shining Armor's guard or the Canterlot Magical Research Institute will likely be able to set Satallion back if the Spell of Unity is cast on them.

"But then again, we have almost no intelligence about Satallion himself. It's altogether likely that we won't be able to destroy him without the Elements of Harmony-in which case, the army could only hope to slow him down or, at most, capture him.

"I'd like to propose a compromise: if we do not win our battle against him, and if the Spell of Unity revives us, then we go back to Canterlot, give Shining Armor all the information we have-_including_ any information we're about to get from our fight with Satallion-and then, we rest for the night. We can try again to find and destroy him once we are fresh and rested."

"I like that plan," Rainbow Dash said. "I dunno about you guys, but I feel like I could sleep in for a _week_!"

They all giggled. Pinkie added, "This is weird, but...once we beat Satallion...I'd rather sleep than party!"

"_That_ don't sound right! We need to get you to a doctor!" Applejack joked. They all laughed, even Twilight.

A wave of comfort swept over Twilight as she began to forget her anxiety: she was with her friends. They cared about each other, a lot. She felt stronger by their side-strong enough to find the courage within her to set her fears and anxieties aside, and strong enough for this one, final fight before she could finally rest from this long, hard day.

"Should we send out the radar?" Rarity asked.

Celestia shook her head. "There's no need, not this time. I can sense his general location, just as I could sense the cores. He can run, but he can't hide!"

Rainbow Dash switched out, crouched for a sprint, and pawed the ground. "Just tell me where, and we're there!"

"He's at the center, near the volcano," Celestia answered, going back into her spirit form. Rainbow Dash flew there as fast as she could, with everyone keeping alert to see if they could spot him-and they saw a fiery, dark alicorn flying away from the volcano. "It's him!" Celestia shouted. "After him!"

Rainbow Dash was easily faster than this demon, but as soon as he saw them, he began breaking the earth behind him with his magic and sending streaks of lava flashing up at them. Rainbow dodged left and right and never took a hit from the magma, but she could feel the heat every time.

"We've gotta slow him down," Rainbow Dash shouted. "And I can't get close enough to use a tornado! And I don't think Flutershy's bats will be able to get near him, either!"

"Then we switch tactics!" Celestia declared, and popped into physical form, herself. She soared with all her might, beating the burning air with her huge, shining wings, and firing blast after blast of her terrible magic down at Satallion. But as she was doing this, the magic of the Spell of Unity began to crackle and destabilize. "Uh-oh," Celestia gulped.

"What's going on?!" Flutteshy gasped.

"I'm not sure; I feel like the Spell of Unity is going into some less stable, more powerful form-some of your abilities have become mine; I can already feel myself flying faster. I'm not sure what else this might mean, but we must keep fighting!"

Celestia charged at Satallion and kept firing. A few blasts connected, but all he did was send more lava back at them and make it harder and harder to get near him. In fact, one chunk of lava smacked Celestia's leg, both burning it and cracking bones from the sheer impact. Celestia screamed, and tried to focus through the pain enough to stay aloft.

"Princess!" Rarity shouted. "Rainbow Dash, land on her back and let me switch out and try to heal her!"

Rainbow Dash did as she was told, and Rarity switched out, clutching the Princess's back. Before Rarity could open her satchel, they saw huge, fiery boulders flying at them. Trying to think fast, Celestia blasted the boulders with her magic, and they exploded into a shower of gems. Celestia flew through the field of gems, and to her astonishment, her body absorbed the gems on contact, and her leg was completely healed.

"That-that must've happened because of your gem-talents merging with my power," Celestia thought aloud. "I'm not sure what all my abilities are with the Spell of Unity in this state, but this is _definitely_ making me more powerful-it's _exactly_ what we need to take him down! But how can we get close to him when he keeps sending lava and stone up at us?"

"Ooo! Ooo!" Pinkie shouted. "Let me, let me! My Pinkie-sense can help predict where the lava's going to be!"

Pinkie switched out, and sure enough: Celestia could sense where the lava and boulders were going to be before they were there. She easily navigated Satallion's attacks and got close to him without him even realizing what was happening. "Twilight!" she whispered. "I've seen your magic do things that shouldn't be possible, and I want this to be the most effective attack it can be. If the effect of you being in physical form conforms to the same pattern that Pinkie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash did, then we will be able to destroy him easily! Switch out with Pinkie!"

Twilight did as she was told, and the blasts that Celestia rained down on Satallion looked twice as big as they were before. It took him by surprise, and nearly shredded his wings before he forced them to back away by sending a wave of flying elementals at them. Celestia did back away; it was an enormous flock of elementals, but for some reason, the elementals didn't chase Celestia when she backed away. They swarmed around Satallion, as if they were trying to protect him. Celestia fired bolt after bolt at the elementals, but she could only destroy one elemental at a time, and it seemed like every elemental that was destroyed was immediately replaced with another.

"This won't work!" Celestia shouted. "Quickly, everypony, _think_: what was the best way to clear out a crowd?!"

"M...my animals could lure corrupted ponies away when I sent them away," Fluttershy hesitatingly half-said, half-muttered. "But I don't know what'll happen if I switch out now!"

"What do we have to lose?" Twilight asked.

Fluttershy obediently switched out, and to everyone's surprise, Celestia was now sending out _volleys _of magical blasts in a spread instead of single magic missiles. Each volley destroyed dozens, maybe even hundreds, of the swarming elementals. Before long, the swarm was gone, and Twilight switched out to unleash the full brunt of their magical might against the demon.

Satallion reacted creatively: instead of sending molten rock up at them, he sent solid boulders flying at Celestia. She did her best to dodge, but the boulders were coming in thick and heavy-she had to back off. "Applejack!" she shouted. "You're the strong one; let's see what effect your magic has!"

Applejack obediently switched out, but said, "Beg yer pardon, highness, but I don't _have_ magic!"

"Yes, you do: _everypony_ does. It's just less obvious with earth ponies." She fired magical blasts at the boulders, and the physical force behind those blasts was _incredible_: the boulders shattered and flew into each other. For a moment, Twilight wondered if the boulders would rain down on Satallion himself and crush him, but she saw that the boulders were actually going through him as though he weren't even there. His nature as a spirit-being was showing pretty clearly.

Without the swarm of boulders, Satallion was once again unprotected, so Twilight switched out, and Celestia again blasted Satallion with all the might she could muster, aiming for his wings to slow him down and ground him. Satallion again began sending up waves of lava, but between Rainbow Dash's speed and Pinkie's sense, they were easily able to navigate the fray and get close to Satallion.

"He's recycling his tricks!" Twilight shouted. "He's running out of ideas and just trying whatever he can to slow us down!"

"Or...maybe that's what he _wants_ us to think!" Fluttershy whimpered.

"Only one way to find out:" Rainbow Dash answered. "_Finish him_!"

They kept blasting him, his elementals, and his boulders, and within minutes, Satallion could no longer fly. He was crumpled on the ground, panting, not moving at all.

Celestia landed in front of him, and they all got a good look at the demon-who only Celestia had seen before. His fur was pitch black, and almost looked metallic or mineral. Twilight couldn't decide whether his mane looked more like a slowly-burning lick of flame, or a river of lava. He had two twisted horns sticking up from his forehead, and his cutie marked looked like a burning heart being broken by a three-pronged spear. On the whole, he looked as demonic as Celestia looked angelic.

Celestia glared at the demon, trying to decide whether to risk using the Elements of Harmony or not. He seemed to regain his senses and looked up at Celestia with a sneer that filled Twilight with righteous rage. She'd seen that sneer before on Cadence's face, and it was just as disgusting seeing it in person!

"So," he began-and Twilight could tell with that word alone that this was the source of the corruption-this was the voice she had heard echo through the voices of the Cakes, Rainbow Dash, and Nightmare Moon while they were corrupted. "Here you stand, Tia, the very image of what you have become."

Celestia didn't answer; she only glared at him.

"Look at you, supporting that mortal on your back! That's all you do: you waste your eternal life _serving_ these mortals! They think _they_ serve _you_ by bringing you food, drink, and scrolls when you call for them and following the laws you've written. But you and I know better: ruling without magical mind control is nothing but a _chore_! A chore you take on yourself-and for what?! You squander every second of your eternal life, ruling over ponies who perish after such a _short_ span of time! Everypony you've ever known, bar these few, has already turned to dust! And soon, very soon, these few will perish, as well-whether I decide to speed them on their way or not. It's a wonder the very one on your back doesn't rot into potting soil even as we speak and stain your lovely white coat!"

Twilight heard a soft splattering noise, and saw that Satallion's cutting words had actually extracted a tear from Celestia's eyes-not that the stench of sulfur was helping her eyes any.

Celestia grew angry, but Twilight was angry, too, so it only half-scared her, this time. Celestia softly, but angrily, answered, "_That_ is why I cherish the time I _do_ have with her. I cherish it now, and I will continue to cherish it in memory long after it is finished: I will _never_ forget her or her friends as long as I live; even if I live to be a million, two million, a billion years old or more, I will remember them _forever_! And...I know this much: in the end...they will _never_ be food for you!"

Satallion chuckled darkly, and Twilight hoped that would be the last time she _ever_ needed to hear that vile laughter. "So...the truth comes out. After everything I've seen in this land of the living, I think I finally understand this thing you call 'love'. And now that I understand it, I pity you, Tia."

"Hatred _often_ masquerades as pity!" Celestia spat.

Satallion ignored her words, and continued: "Unlike me, you are an _incomplete being_. You need the company of mere mortals like her to make your pathetic, miserable, unending life _bearable_!"

Celestia snorted, which was something that Twilight _never_ thought she'd see her do. Twilight's blood suddenly ran cold with two realizations: first, she realized that Celestia's life _had_ been miserable: nearly everypony she'd known-her mother and father, her aunt, Starswirl the Bearded-they were all long gone, and she was _never_ going to see them again. And she mentioned that she always had a protégé in every generation-every protégé she'd had before Twilight was _also_ long gone. And someday, Twilight would get old, breathe her last, and then Celestia would never see her again, either.

And yet, knowing that, while she lived, Twilight was providing some comfort to her beloved mentor and Princess-she took comfort in that notion, herself. If it was her destiny to do just enough to keep this wonderful creature sane enough to keep doing what she's done for all ponykind, then that would be enough for Twilight-she would be content with that place in history.

But that was only one of the two thoughts that occurred to her in that moment, and the other terrified her so much, she wanted to run away: Celestia was about to get angrier than she had ever been before-angrier than she'd been at Gilda and Trixie, angrier than she'd been during the council, and angrier than she had been at Twilight at the top of Cloudsdale. The very thought of it scared Twilight to her core! Twilight clutched Celestia's shoulders tightly, terrified of what was coming next when Celestia's rage came to a boil. She let out a small whimper as she heard Celestia draw in breath for her answer, and cowered at the words that would haunt her forever:

"THEY DON'T MAKE MY LIFE _BEARABLE_; _THEY MAKE IT WONDERFUL_!"

Something was shattered in Twilight-in that moment, she felt a strange, liberating clarity sweep through her mind and soul. Somehow, she knew she'd never be afraid of Celestia's anger again. Twilight would've been content with "bearable", but instead, she made Celestia's life _wonderful_! The heady feeling of immensity came into Twilight's heart again, the same feeling she'd felt when she was in the council chamber and had realized that Celestia, just by being who she was, had been changing the destiny of all ponykind for the better. Once again, she felt like she was an angel in the presence of a goddess, and she felt like every one of her friends was a shining angel, too.

And, as they were angels, it was time to destroy the demon. They all surged into material form, and the energy of the Elements of Harmony ran through them and flew into Satallion.

But before the energy of the elements banished him from the land of the living, he let out a roar, and that roar echoed throughout the whole caldera. A wave of glowing smoke swept out of the volcano and raced toward them. The feeling of immensity drained from Twilight immediately, and the crackling glow of the Spell of Unity faded. Suddenly, Twilight felt unbelievably tired-she could barely stand up and keep her eyes open!

She could tell from the grunts and groans of her friends, and even Celestia, that they felt the same exhaustion that had suddenly washed over Twilight.

"The Spell of Unity!" Celestia croaked. "It's...finished! O...our exhaustion must be a...s-side effect of...!"

Twilight looked at the advancing wall of glowing embers. "And...that's a pyroclastic flow; I've read about them! They travel at almost half the...half the speed of sound, and they're over a thousand degrees Fahrenheit! But...but they're not supposed to happen from volcanoes that-" Twilight felt like her brain was cramping up as she tried and failed to recall her knowledge of geology-she was just too tired to think! But she felt like a pyroclastic flow from this kind of volcano just plain wasn't _right_! Then again, Satallion's magic was strong enough to change the geology of the northern wastes into a volcanic caldera; it couldn't take that much more magic to change one type of volcano into another type.

"So we...we won't get revived from this?" Rarity gulped.

Celestia shook her head sadly. Her magic was so exhausted that her hair had lost its colors and fell limply in pink locks, instead of waving in the colors of the dawn. A tear dripped down her exhausted face, and she moaned, "Oh, Luna-don't let your mind break from this...people of Equestria, _please_ be patient with her while she learns to live without me...!"

"We can't give up!" Rainbow Dash shouted, trying her best to fly with her sore, fatigued wing muscles. "Twilight, can you teleport us out of here, like you did when we were running from those dragons?"

Twilight tried and tried to work her magic, but she couldn't do more than make her horn sputter a few useless sparks.

"We only need to teleport a few miles away to survive!" Rainbow Dash insisted. "Come on! _Anything_ could make the difference! ...Even if you can't teleport _all_ of us, at least get the Princess to safety!"

Twilight summoned all the magical strength left within her-but it wasn't enough to complete the spell; she found herself panting, barely keeping herself from collapsing to the ground. It was no use: her strength was gone. "I...I can't do it. I...I tried..."

Rarity silently walked up to Twilight. She was more tired than Twilight had ever seen her, even after she'd been worked half to death on their failed dresses for the Gala. But Twilight knew what Rarity was about to try: one unicorn can give their magic to another to restore an exhausted friend. She was going to try to give what little magic she had to Twilight, so Twilight could teleport herself and the Princess away. Twilight's eyes teared up at her friend's sacrifice, and she silently raised her horn to accept Rarity's dwindling power-only to find that Rarity didn't even have enough magical strength to give Twilight even a little power: her horn couldn't do more than sputter useless sparks, either. Twilight didn't have the strength to look up at Rarity's face, but she knew what she'd see if she did: tears splattered the rocky ground beneath Rarity's head, and those, Twilight _could_ see.

The Princess gasped, "My magical power is exhausted, too-I can't teleport us, either. And...I can't re-cast the Spell of Unity. This...this is the end."

Twilight tried to collect her thoughts. "Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash...Princess...if you can fly above the pyroclastic flow, you'll survive. We don't _all_ have to lose our lives to this; besides, Luna _needs _you!"

"Ooo, I...I don't think I can fly!" Fluttershy moaned.

Celestia looked down at Twilight, trying to think what to say. Twilight summoned the strength to lift her head and take one last look at her Princess. As she gazed into her despondent eyes, she found it hard to speak, too; all she could think of was, "While I lived...I know I helped make you happy...and I'm so happy with that...! You...you were always gonna outlive me-go! Don't wait too long!"

Celestia swallowed hard, spread her wings-and found she couldn't get more than a few feet off the ground! She was too exhausted to fly, and she just couldn't force herself any higher, no matter how bravely she fought back against her own fatigue. She landed on her feet, panting. "It's...it's no use," she gasped.

Pinkie was looking sadly around, trying to figure out how best to react. Finally, she said, "Guys...we're going to pony heaven, now, and...well...I'm sad that I don't get more time with the cakes, or the twins, or Ponyville. But...at least...none of us has to make the trip to pony heaven alone!"

Applejack nodded and sniffled. "I'm sad I don't get to live to see Apple Bloom get her cutie mark...but..._she'll_ live to see it. That's the important thing. An'...an' I'm glad I don't have to die alone."

The six of them, out of things to say, out of the strength to say it, moved closer together for their last group hug. Celestia stood over them and spread her wings over them, even though she knew it wouldn't protect them from the searing heat. She wanted to give her final blessing to this friendship, this _beautiful _friendship, which was the very image of everything she had fought and ruled and toiled for centuries to nourish and protect. She closed her eyes and hoped that this friendship, and the friendship of all Equestria, would survive-even if they didn't.

After a few moments, Rainbow Dash began sobbing. "I can't believe it-I can't look! I can't believe that...after every brave thing I've ever done...underneath it all...I'm a _coward_!"

Applejack shook her head. "You're no coward, Rainbow. A coward is somepony who knows the risks...and runs away. You knew this could happen...you still stuck with us until the bitter end. Even if you _never_ summon up the courage to look at that there deadly smoke...you're still the bravest pony I know."

Rainbow sobbed again, and whispered, "Thanks, Applejack..."

The pyroclastic flow came nearer and nearer...then suddenly disappeared. The lava around them instantly cooled to solid rock, and the stifling, stinking air become downright freezing. It was as if every trace of Satallion's magic disappeared all at once.

After a few moments of silence, Celestia snorted again. "He...was _bluffing us_..._again_! That _demon_...he just _had_ to get in one last hit to make us _hurt_!"

"Or maybe he really _was_ trying to kill us, and just _couldn't_," Rarity panted.

Pinkie whimpered, "Don't be mad! Now we get to _live_! I get to see the Cakes and the twins , you get to see Luna, we all get to see Ponyville, Applejack and Rarity get to see..." Pinkie trailed off, too tired to continue.

Celestia smiled. "You're right. He's tormented us for the last time."

Pinkie gasped, whipping her umbrella-hat onto her head, seemingly from nowhere. "Twitchy-tail!" she screamed.

"Twitchy-tail?" Celestia asked.

The loudest thunderclap Twilight had ever heard exploded overhead. It terrified Twilight with its sheer suddenness, but she knew it had to have made Celestia's heart stop. Twilight tried to assure herself that it was from one of the ash clouds-after all, volcanic ash was notorious for being full of lightning and thunder.

Twilight looked up from underneath Celestia, and saw a bank of what were _unmistakably_ rain clouds, and they were gushing down a cloudburst just as bad as the one at Cloudsdale had been. The downpour surrounded them on all sides, as though they were in the eye of a hurricane-a rapidly-closing eye at that. Twilight tried to understand how this was possible, but all she could think of was that somehow, Satallion must have set this up as a backup plan, in case they succeeded in banishing him. The words echoed through Twilight's mind: _He always does whatever hurts his enemies the most_. He must've put a lot of effort into a storm _this_ big, and if he'd spent that effort securing his caldera base, then he might've actually won.

But none of that mattered, now. The rain was closing in fast, and there was no shelter anywhere! If only there were at least a way to keep Celestia dry-then it clicked in Twilight's mind: "Our raincoats!" she gasped. Immediately, she and her six friends opened their saddlebags and pulled out the raingear they had stored away. They spent as much of their dwindling strength as they could, throwing their raingear and their waterproof saddlebags over her back, her shoulders, her wings, her flank, hear head-and making sure every inch of her was covered so that at least she wouldn't get wet.

Twilight thought for a moment, then said, "Let's...get back under her, keep her warm..."

Twilight scrambled back underneath Celestia and snuggled up under her chin, then whispered, "Princess...please, say something!"

Celestia let out a squeaking gasp.

With a loud whoosh, the deluge swept over them. Celestia kept gasping and making sobbing noises, even though no tears could come out.

Twilight summoned the strength within her and shouted over the storm, "Please try to hold your mind together, Princess! We'll-we'll survive this, and you'll see Luna again, and...and as soon as we get back to the castle, there'll be a nice, hot bath, and...and..." Celestia's terror wrung Twilight's heart too much; she couldn't speak or even think, anymore. She could only weep, knowing that her poor mentor, who deserved so much better, was in so much agony of heart, and there was _nothing_ she could do to ease her pain! Crying was all her friends could do, too-Rainbow Dash seemed to be bawling the loudest.

When Twilight finally ran out of tears, she looked up at Celestia. For a long time, Celestia said nothing, she was just breathing quickly in little gasps.

Twilight tried to force her ragged voice louder than the storm, and begged her mentor, "_Please_-_try_ to take deep breaths!"

Celestia apparently heard her; her breathing became a little deeper, though forced. After a few minutes, her breathing felt a little less forced, and Celestia's muscles seemed a little more relaxed, but was it because she was less afraid, or getting exhausted? Would Celestia _faint _in this awful storm? Twilight opened her mouth to ask, but she just couldn't get the words out. After a little while, she tried again to speak, and found she _still_ couldn't.

After a few more minutes, Celestia did something Twilight didn't understand, and it actually scared her: she _laughed_. Was she going insane with terror?

Twilight tried to make her voice ask if Celestia was all right, but only cracking, half-formed syllables came out, too quiet to be heard clearly in the storm. But they were enough to make Celestia look at Twilight, and she saw Twilight's horrified, confused expression.

"Twilight," Celestia gasped, "This...storm...the longer I'm in it...the less afraid I feel. Thanks to you-it's not at all like how it was with DisQord. I'm dry. I'm warm. There's no laughter-only the most beautiful, _beautiful_ sorrow I've ever seen. There's no cruelty-only empathy. And I'm so _very_ not alone. " After a few more minutes, she croaked, "I laughed...because Satallion just began healing my last wound. Once I overcome my fear of rain...I'll be completely free _forever_!"

Twilight's jaw dropped, and her face brightened. She wanted to tell Celestia how glad she was that she no longer needed to feel afraid, and how, when they finally get out of this-however they do-she'll be _better_ than when she went in, in ironic defiance of the demon's fell intentions. But the words didn't come out, and Celestia silently told Twilight that it was okay by resting her head on Twilight's forehead.

There was silence for a long time-silence in their voices, and silence in Twilight's head. They stood still, slowly regaining a little strength...just a little.

After a while, Pinkie whimpered, "Twilight?"

Twilight came to her senses, and the engines of her mind suddenly restarted, ready to process whatever Pinkie was about to say-assuming it _could_ be processed: this _was_ Pinkie she was thinking about. "Yes?"

"I...need to go to the little filly's room."

Rarity, who was curled up underneath Pinkie (it was very cramped, even with Celestia's wings spread), gulped loudly. "That is _not_ what I want to hear from the mare standing above me!"

The silence became awkward as Twilight tried to think of a solution. She noticed a rainhat sitting on the ground next to them, and she used her magic to lift it off the ground, turn it inside-out, and move it under Pinkie's tail. Pinkie gulped. "Uhh...close your eyes, everypony!"

Twilight closed her eyes, and tried to hold the hat steady, and not let Rarity's whimpering about heat-sealing seams break her concentration. "O-okay...you can open them, now!" Pinkie said. Twilight opened her eyes and threw the rainhat's contents out into the storm. The flipped the hat rightside-in and let the rain clean it off.

They were then silent again for a long time-and they were very much _trying_ to be.

After a few more minutes, Rainbow Dash grumbled. "I can't believe this...we beat Satallion, saved Equestria, and what do we get for it?! We're stranded in a storm. And I'm still not strong enough to fly up and fix it, either. Even if I was, it's raining so hard, I probably wouldn't make it. Even if the Princess isn't scared, anymore, this is the _worst victory EVER!_"

"It _is_ a bit of an anticlimax," Rarity admitted.

"A _bit_ of one? Look, I don't know what an anticlimax is, but I _do_ know this isn't a _bit_ of one! It's not a _bit_ of _anything_!"

"I'm with Rainbow Dash on this one," Applejack thought aloud. "Is there anything we can do to get outta this without gettin' soaked?"

"Ooo...we don't want to get wet when it's _this_ cold!" Fluttershy whimpered. "We're barely keeping warm even when we're all snuggled together like this! Remember what Twilight said about how water draws all the warmth right from your body?"

"Come on, you guys!" Pinkie encouraged them. "Twilight's a genius! She'll think of something!"

"I...can't think of _anything_," Twilight moaned.

"Don't beat yourself up about it, Twilight," Celestia said softly. "We'll figure _something_ out. But...right now..."

"Yes?" Twilight asked, held in suspense by what Celestia was about to ask.

Celestia's face flushed a little, and she finally said, "_I _need to use the little filly's room!"

Twilight's face went a little red, too, and she again retrieved the rainhat.

"For heaven's sake, _be careful!_" Rarity squeaked.

Twilight felt the rainhat get full and the flow stop, so she moved the hat away and threw the contents away into the storm. She began letting the rain clean the hat off, but then she heard Celestia whisper, "There's more."

Twilight's face got a _lot_ redder. She obediently and silently moved the hat back under Celestia's tail to get the rest of it. After the flow stopped again, she threw it out into the storm, and felt very relieved that the moment was over, and she could finally stop feeling so embarrassed. She turned the hat rightside-in to let the rain wash over it again, but then she heard, "There's more, Twilight."

Twilight's face went beet-red at this; she felt like she was about ready to fall over. Or walk out into the storm and bash her head against a rock. But she didn't do either; she just silently moved the rainhat under Celestia's tail a third time, and let her fill the hat again. As soon as the flow stopped, Twilight hurled it out into the storm, but before she turned that hat rightside-in, she looked up at Celestia. Celestia looked back, and her face was beet-red, too. The silence was incredibly awkward. "...That's all," Celestia managed to mouth.

Twilight slowly looked away, let the rain clean the rainhat off, and set the rainhat down. She slowly gazed out into the storm and tried her best-but unsuccessfully-to forget what had just happened.

After a few more awkward, silent moments, Twilight heard Celestia say, "You know, Twilight, you're pretty good at this."

Twilight felt the red rush back to her face. "Uh...thanks..."

"In fact," Celestia added, "If I didn't know any better, I'd think your cutie mark should've been a hat full of-"

Celestia couldn't finish the sentence: she burst out laughing, and even though the joke was at Twilight's expense, she couldn't help but laugh, too. Her friends all joined in, and they laughed and laughed until it _hurt_!

Finally, when they couldn't laugh any more, Twilight recalled their time at the donut shop after the Grand Galloping Gala had been ruined, and because the six of them were together, the night felt like the best night ever, even though it had been the worst. Twilight reflected that the Power of Friendship came with a lot of perks: not only could it banish demons and petrify chaos spirits, but it could turn tears to laughter and the worst experiences ever into the best ones. But she was too tired from adventuring, fighting, worrying, crying, and laughing to say this reflection out load.

After a few more minutes, Pinkie said, "Say, Princess, do you wanna wipe the royal rump off? I found this this parchment, see-"

Suddenly, it clicked in Twilight's mind: "_That's our way out of this_! I took some scrolls along just as we were leaving Rarity's shop! If we send one to Spike, he can let the palace guard know that we're here, and _they_ can come rescue us!"

Twilight hastily scribbled a note on the half-dry parchment Pinkie was holding:

_Dear Spike:_

_We beat Satallion, but now we're exhausted and stranded in a storm with no shelter. Please, have the palace guard come rescue us!_

_Love, Twilight Sparkle._

_P.S.: Sorry for not telling you sooner that I'm okay. This has been the most hectic day-or..._night_ ever!_

Twilight rolled the scroll up, and Celestia used what little magic she now had left to send the letter on its way.

After a moment, Rarity asked, "How long do you suppose it'll take for them to come help us?"

"Not long," Twilight thought aloud. "You know how Shining Armor was; desperate to do something to help. He'll probably send every pegasus in Equestria to take this storm apart once he reads it. I mean, they're all right there in Canterlot, right?"

"I'm just glad that parchment wasn't too wet to use," Celestia cut in.

"Wait a minute-that parchment was wet because of the _rain_, right, Pinkie?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I mean...you didn't..._use_ it, did you?"

Pinkie gasped. "You think Spike's _allergic_ to-!?"

Twilight laughed. "Nah. Not until we _tell_ him!"

They all burst out laughing again. If fact, they were laughing so hard that it took them a moment to notice that they were now surrounded by heavily cloaked figures on all sides. Twilight gasped when she saw them; their hoods completely covered their faces, and the sight of them was downright creepy. Twilight tried to reason with herself: of _course_ they're wearing heavy cloaks with their hoods up; it's pouring and freezing! Twilight wished she had a nice, thick, warm, waterproofed cloak, herself.

A flash of lightning illuminated the faces of some of the cloaked figures, and she saw gleaming standard-issue Canterlot armor-and her mother's and father's faces!

"Mom? Dad?!" Twilight gasped.

"Twilight, we have to take precautions and make sure it's really you," her father insisted. "What's the last thing you asked your mother and me to do?"

Twilight tried to think and remember- "I...I asked you to make sure Spike has a home if anything happens to me."

Her mother nodded. "And what was the last thing your father and I asked you to do, right before you left?"

Twilight tried to think- "You...you and Dad didn't ask me to do anything; Shining Armor asked me to take care of the Princess!"

"It's them!" Twilight's mother shouted. "I can't sense any other magic around. We couldn't be surer!"

Twilight's parents projected a forcefield over them to stop the rain, and one of the guards fired a green beam into the sky, which must have been some kind of signal. Within seconds, Luna, Spike, Shining Armor, and Cadence popped into existence in front of Celestia, along with twenty maids with blankets and towels. A sonic boom screeched overhead as the Wonderbolts tore the storm in half, and an unbelievable number of pegasi were pounding away at the storm clouds, slowly taking them apart.

Luna and Cadence rushed to Celestia and buried their faces in her shoulders, while the maids lifted the drenched raincoats and saddlebags off of Celestia and wrapped her and the six heroes in soft, toasty-warm blankets.

Celestia whispered to Luna, "You didn't lose me, Luna-for a while, I thought you would, but we still have eternity together. I will _not_ leave you."

Spike rushed toward Twilight, and they hugged. "Where in Equestria have you _been_?!" Spike demanded. "I've been so worried about you!"

"It feels like I've been _everywhere_!" Twilight sighed.

"I can't believe your crazy brother made me sit in the _war room_ for two hours! It was _awful_! As soon as he realized you could send me a scroll to tell us what's going on, he put me on the table in the middle of the room! Everypony was _staring_ at me, waiting for me to cough up a scroll, when they all knew I couldn't control when it would happen! It was boring and creepy and weird all at the same time! Couldn't you have sent it two hours sooner?!"

Pinkie giggled. "What we _really_ should've done is send it _before_ I-"

Applejack grabbed Pinkie's mouth and held it shut. They all cracked up, including Spike, until he interrupted the laughter and said, "I don't get it." Then they all laughed again, even harder.

Unbeknownst to them, Cadence and Twilight's parents looked at each other and nodded. They aimed their horns at the tip of Celestia's horn, and magical energy arced into her horn: they were restoring her power. After a few seconds, Celestia's hair began waving magically with the colors of the dawn, and she felt her strength return. In triumph, she focused her magic and raised the sun for the first time in over twenty-four hours. They could hear the whooping and cheering of the pegasi above them, but even more dazzling than that was how the light of the sun reflected off the thick downpour and shone a glorious triple rainbow down on them. Celestia looked up at the rainbow and sighed happily. "It's been a long time since I saw a rainbow like this one...!"

It clicked in Twilight's mind that this was what she meant back in Everfree Forest when she looked at the thin, golden rainbow and said "It's been a long time". But Twilight was still a little too tired to say anything.

They all stood there, staring at the rainbow for a few minutes, until finally, Celestia groaned, "Luna-remember that hot bath you promised us?"

Luna vigorously nodded.

"I think I'll take you up on that offer now."

Luna cast her teleportation spell, and the next thing they knew, they had splashed into a tub of relaxing, hot water. ...With the blankets still wrapped around them. And Luna still had her jewels and cloak on. And she accidentally caught Shining Armor up in the teleport, as well-so _he_, being a "he", was now in _the royal __**princess's**__ bath_.

His face flushed as he observed, "I...probably shouldn't be in here...I'll step out, now."

"Right behind you, Captain!" Spike hastily agreed.

Celestia smiled at Luna. "When I said 'I'll take you up on that offer now', I didn't mean for you to make _this_ much haste."

The maids silently drew the soaked blankets out of the water, and began scrubbing the Princess and Twilight and her friends of all the sweat and dust and ash and stench they had accumulated over the long, harrowing night. They finally, _finally_ got to relax after everything they'd been through.

Celestia let out a happy moan, just as Twilight was beginning to doze off. "I just realized I'm not _just_ bathing in soap and water," she said. "I'm bathing in _love_. The people care about me, I care about them...nopony's heart is cold; we are all so _very _not alone. It's so warm, so clean-it's a _wonderful_ way to spend eternity. Or a lifetime, if that's all you have..."

That was the last thing Twilight remembered from that day: after that, the soothing warmth of the bathwater, the knowledge that they and their loved ones were finally safe, the knowledge that it was _finally_ alright to run out of strength, and the dreadful fatigue of the day lulled her into a deep, dreamless sleep. The maids had to silently lift her out of the water, onto towels, and into her bed, and from there, she didn't wake up again for nearly twenty-four hours.

Epilogue:

Gloomy clouds hovered overhead, with a downpour ready to soak the thirsty land in Ponyville. Celestia was dressed for the occasion, with every inch of her sheathed in a custom-made, jeweled rain outfit Rarity had designed and created for her. Twilight was right under her, with Luna on one side, and Cadence on the other: Celestia was surrounded by as much emotional support as she could possibly have.

Pinkie was in front of her, barely containing her excitement. She was practically dancing in place, and her colorful umbrella-hat just accented her bouncy movement all the more. "Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy! RAIN GRAPES!"

Twilight overheard Celestia speaking with Luna: "We haven't done this since the day Starswirl told us our parents had disappeared."

Luna answered, "I know...I wonder if that vine is still there in Everfree Palace...? ...How are you feeling, Tia?"

Celestia whispered her response: "I'm not showing it, but I am _terrified_. I know it's just water, I know I'll be dry, I know Twilight can set up a forcefield, or Rainbow Dash can clear out the sky, but...I'm _so scared_! But...I need to keep doing this to _completely_ get over my fear."

Twilight didn't quite know how to respond. "Do you...want to do this later?"

Celestia shook her head. "If I start procrastinating now, then I'm afraid I'll keep putting it off and keep putting it off, and in the end, I'll never do this. I want my fear behind me forever."

They were surrounded by ponies of every age and description; all of them had paid admission to come to the vineyard and eat their sweet wares as soon as the downpour started. Many of them were children. All of them were thrilled that Celestia was there, but concerned about her: her secret was out.

Celestia noted that her secret was out, and added, "Besides, this...this is one of my weaknesses. If I don't overcome it, some enemy of Equestria _will_ end up using it against me."

Twilight nodded.

"_One word_, Princess," Rainbow Dash insisted. She was behind the Princess, crouched and ready to shoot up into the sky. "_One _word, and I'll have a hole in the clouds above you in _two seconds_ to keep you dry. My weather team can have the whole sky cleared in _twenty_ seconds! _One word_, and the storm's over."

Celestia thought her answer over for a moment, then looked back at Rainbow, and said, "I...appreciate that my options are open, but...I have to do this. For myself, _and _for Equestria."

Rainbow Dash covered her head. "Here it comes. Don't forget: _one word_, Princess!"

Celestia gulped. "I won't forget."

That was all the warning they got before the downpour swept over them and soaked their raincoats completely. Celestia shut her eyes tightly and shuddered, but kept silent. Twilight could feel her muscles tense up, so she silently began nuzzling her beloved mentor, hoping it would be some comfort to her. Luna and Cadence were doing the same, and slowly, Celestia began to relax a little.

Pinkie wasn't paying any attention; she was eagerly staring at the vines as they soaked up rainwater. She just kept chanting, "Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boyyyyyy!"

Celestia finally opened her eyes, and began taking deep breaths. "The fear..." she laughed. "I think I just understood; it's almost all anticipation."

"So...it won't be necessary to do this very often before you're over it altogether?" Luna asked.

Celestia nodded.

"Here it comes!" Pinkie squealed. The grapes were beginning to inflate on the vine, full of sweet nectar. Celestia stared at what was once her favorite treat-they looked so small, now that she was an adult, and had grown so much larger than other ponies. But the little fruits were just as much a splash of color in a gloomy, gray rainstorm as they had ever been-the colors were just as she remembered them.

"Take the first bite, Princess! Take the first bite!" Pinkie insisted.

Celestia looked around, and though it was a little hard to see through the downpour, the whole crowd was watching her and waiting-they weren't going to begin eating until after she had begun. She was surprised she was given this honor, but she decided to accept it.

She moved her head closer to the vine, and the scent of the wet leaves brought her back to her childhood, and she could almost feel the thrill of wondering whether she'd get caught by her guardians out in the rain while she was picking the grapes. She took one of the grapes into her mouth, pressed the tender fruit against the roof of her mouth with her tongue-and the most delicious flavor she'd ever known exploded onto the insides of her cheeks. She let out a happy moan and savored every drop of the sweet, tangy juice. _Oh_, how worth it it was for her and Luna to have planted that vine when they were kids! Eating those grapes was so much fun, the danger of being caught only added to the fun, and they had gotten so used to getting soaked and chilled in the rain that it actually felt _good_ while they were doing all that sneaking...

Celestia realized that these grapes _had_ brought her back and made her feel like a child, again. A happy child with a _very _close sister and friend, and not a care in the world.

Celestia looked down at Luna, and motioned for Luna to try some grapes, too. She slowly did, and Celestia heard her give off a happy moan, as well. She looked up at Celestia, and as their eyes connected, they each realized the other was feeling exactly the same way: a child again-at home again. They then began furiously gobbling up the grapes, just as they had as children.

Satisfied that the Princess was happy, Twilight sampled a few grapes, herself, and soon, even Rainbow Dash had loosened up and began eating, as well.

After they'd all had their fill-even the crowds-some of the children began to get bored. Then they began playing. Then they began wrestling. Then they got into the mud, and the inevitable happened: they got filthy, and loved every second of it.

Twilight saw Celestia look at Luna with a mischievous grin, and Luna, after a moment, returned the look. Twilight couldn't quite believe what she saw next...

Rarity had never been more excited: not only the Princess herself, but _her whole royal family_ was wearing outfits _she_ had made, just for them! Rarity had gotten Spike to round up a host of fashion gods from Canterlot, and they were all waiting outside the vineyard to see Celestia leaving, waiting to get photos of the outfit, of the royal sisters and their niece...

And, much to Rarity's horror, the first thing she saw was Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom laughing, coming out of the vineyard, covered in mud. She gasped. "Sweetie Belle!" she roared. "How _dare_ you get mud all over your new rainy day ensemble?! You _had_ to choose the day I have _every photographer in Canterlot _gathered to do this, didn't you?! Just _look_ at you...! What would the _Princess_ think?!"

Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom looked at each other, then laughed. "You can ask her, yourself!" Sweetie Belle suggested, stepping aside.

"She's _coming_?!" Rarity gasped. "Ooo, get ready, everypony! Here it comes!"

...And the royal sister came trotting out of the vineyard, laughing-covered in mud, themselves.

Rarity's jaw dropped.

The photographers snapped photos of the two muddy princesses like there _was _a tomorrow, and like their salaries depended on tomorrow's paper being full of their photos. Celestia and Luna looked at the photographers, then at each other.

"You know...Starswirl would _kill_ us for this," Celestia thought aloud.

"But...he's dead..."

Celestia and Luna smiled, then began _striking poses_ for the photographers.

Rarity let out a strange sound somewhere between a whimper and a groan.

After the photographers had run out of film, Celestia stopped next to Rarity on her way back to her carriage, and whispered, "You _really_ did a good job with these rain outfits-they were so well-put-together, we're actually _not_ going to need baths! And it's so warm and soft on the inside-I never knew velvet could be magically waterproofed! I'm going to have to have you make a dress for me one of these days!"

Rarity's face seemed to express every emotion at once. She fell over-into the mud.

As she walked away, Celestia said, "You know, your eye is twitching. You really should have that looked at."

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

...Whew! Yeah, this felt like a looong piece of work, even though it's only five chapters long. I guess it feels that way because I keep going over it to make sure things are consistent...

Okay...where do I begin...?

I'd like to say that I had quite a bit planned for chapters 1 and 3 when I began writing Devil's Stallion, but I had very little planned for chapters 2, 4, and 5 until I began writing them. Least of all 5; I hope it doesn't show. Actually, my first thought was that chapter 5 would consist of only the final boss battle against Satallion, but I decided that would be too short compared to the other chapters, so I turned it into a full-blown Lethal Lava Land level. And since I'd wanted all along to have Trixie and Gilda as recurring bosses, but didn't get a chance to make them recur by the end of chapter 4, I decided to make them recur here. To be honest, though, for a boss to really be recurring, they'd probably have to appear at least three or four times over the course of a game-if I were making a real game adaptation of this (and I may be soon), I'd probably have more levels-the more, the better, and ideally, either Trixie or Gilda would be in most of them.

One thing in particular that I hadn't thought of until I began writing chapter 5 was the cores and how they are grown: the fact that they drop gems when they're destroyed was intended to be a convenience for players, since that gets you ammo and health-which you're going to be low on after fighting a boss. It was only later that I decided that Equestrian gems would be a reagent for actually _making_ a core. And that Canterlot would be one of Satallion's prime targets because of the crystal caves beneath it.

I'd like to add that the gems of Equestria, as far as I'm concerned, do an excellent job of showing just how _different_ everything there works from how it does in real life. In real life, gems never get anywhere _near_ as big as they do in Equestria. And Equestrian gems already come in crystalline shapes as if they'd been already cut; gems in real life tend to be shaped irregularly, and usually they aren't very pretty until after they've been cut by a professional jeweler. (Look at the story of the Golden Jubilee Diamond on wikipedia to see a particularly interesting story, and a good example of how ugly uncut gems can be. While you're at it, check out the "All Natural Gem Polish" trope on .)

Anyhow, now that the gems-as-fuel-for-the-corruption rule has become clear in my mind, I think I've finally come up with an idea for how to establish where the player continues from when they die: I'd thought earlier that some large gem or other should establish where the player respawns from, and now I think that the perfect place to have those gems is inside extra-powerful elementals. Kill the elemental (i.e. the mini-boss), and you can access the gem (i.e. the checkpoint). I wish I'd had the gems-for-corruption idea planned from the beginning; if I had, then I'd have been able to write these mini-bosses into this fic-but oh, well. The fic is still decent as a fic, and I expected (and-by this point-most definitely _want_) changes in the process of video game adaptation, anyway.

What I _had_ planned on from the beginning, though, was Celestia's line close to the end of the battle with Satallion: "They don't make my life bearable; they make it wonderful!" To me, that-and a lot of other things I hint at throughout this fic-helps to display the overarching theme of the world of Equestria: love. That's more badass than it sounds; we're talking about an active relationship between an immortal ruler and her people, and they both come out _way_ ahead because of that relationship, and they both find meaning for themselves in that relationship. I mean, if it weren't for Celestia, then pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns wouldn't be united-they'd likely still be at war. And Celestia would have an empty, meaningless, eternal life if it weren't for her position as Princess. That's a fate worse than death, and love averts it, people!

Also, as far as the timing of the "they make it wonderful!" line goes, I was actually aiming for a combined Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, Shut Up Hannibal, and Crowning Moment of Awesome with that one. If you don't know what those three phrases mean, see to get up to speed.

Actually, it was that inspired a lot of this piece in the first place: it was thinking about how the different characters in the Mane Six line up with different video game tropes (Applejack as Mighty Glacier, Rainbow Dash as Fragile Speedster, etc.) that made me come up with a lot of the ideas that went into this game/fic. I guess this is an invocation of the TvTropes Will Enhance Your Life trope-played pretty stinking straight.

Another thing inspired: a lot of Shining Armor's behavior. He is actually _desperately_ trying to avert the Police Are Useless trope. I mean, the mane six have saved Equestria twice without him having anything to do with it: once against Nightmare Moon, and once against DisQord. Why do they even _have_ the palace guard or a standing army when a librarian/grad student, a farmer, a fashion designer, a weatherpony, a baker's apprentice, and an animal handler can save the world for you without costing a cent of taxpayer money? (Though I guess one can assume, judging from how the Wonderbolts reacted when Spike went on a rampage in Secret of My Excess, that there are legitimate threats to Equestria which the palace guard and other such specialists can and do deal with.) Shining Armor is actually terrified of being useless in this crisis, though he's far from it: he's an integral part of Celestia's backup plan (what tropers would call a Xanatos Gambit), and he and his parents thoroughly foiled Satallion's trap at the end of Chapter 4 and were thus instrumental in freeing Canterlot, even though he didn't do any fighting, himself.

Another trope that I found myself zig-zagging on (though I'd not intended it when I began writing) was the Dumb is Good trope. You see, a lot of Twilight's angst comes from overthinking everything. I mean, who besides an utter bookworm would actually think to themselves, "This strategy of curing one pony from corruption so she becomes the corrupted ponies' new target is effective, but it's using another sentient being, against Immanuel Kant(er)'s ethics, so is what I'm doing wrong?" ...Actually, this makes me wonder whether Immanuel Kant, after reading this fic, would make an exception to his "always wrong to use other people" rule of ethics. Or maybe he'd say it's okay because, at the time you fired the arrows, the corrupted ponies were still your enemies, but I digress. (I'm also making the Dumb Is Good trope look truer _by_ digressing, so I should stop digressing now and get to the freaking point, already!)

Twilight also keeps admiring the simpler lines of thinking that her friends keep bringing up-little morsels like Rarity's "There's a lot of things that aren't right about this, Darling. But we have to just keep doing whatever we can think of to save Equestria. And if barging in or sneaking through the window helps save Equestria, then like it or not, that's what we have to do." That's not actually dumb at all, but making Twilight's angst come from overthinking does seem to display a weakness in intellectualism.

But at the same time, Twilight's analysis helps them get past most of the boss fights. She does make some mistakes, but on the whole throughout this story, she proves her smarts. So while it seems like I go back and forth on this, my real feeling is that Twilight's lines of thinking and that of her friends both have advantages and disadvantages. Analyzing it, I came to the conclusion that Twilight and her friends are _both_ intelligent, but they had different _kinds_ of intelligence-a better way to put it is that _they think differently_. And, in the end, both Twilight and her friends come out ahead by covering each other's' weaknesses and playing off of each other's' strengths-Twilight's friends help Twilight through her angst, and Twilight helps them through the boss fights. It's really just another vehicle for showing off the benefits of friendship and love.

I'd like to add that I had in mind a sort of a nonstandard game over in the event that you run out of extra lives trying to kill Satallion-Celestia, being quite Genre Savvy, decides that it's not worth the risk to try and fight him again, so when you're down to your last life, she teleports back to Canterlot, gives Shining Armor all the information they have, and then they get their bath and go to bed, letting the Equestrian military deal with Satallion, since the military does, in fact, stand a chance against him, after all. Twilight is disappointed that they (i.e. Celestia and the mane six) didn't succeed against Satallion, but Celestia tries to console her and asks her not to think of their time in the Northern Wastes as failure, since they did manage to set Satallion back by _months_ and gain a lot of useful information along the way. My goal in having that conversation happen is, again, to make single-digit-aged girls comfortable with the game: let's say you've been fighting a boss, and you're down to your last life-and then the whole fight gets skipped. You tried and tried, but you didn't win. You're frustrated, disappointed, and in general not having much fun. Twilight is feeling the same way you're feeling, so when Celestia is consoling Twilight, she's also consoling the player by proxy, kind of like how Applejack consoling Fluttershy at the start of the weather factory segment of Cloudsdale was also consoling the player by proxy.

It would further help to console the player if, in the middle of the night after Celestia has turned the information over to Shining Armor, Princess Cadence wakes the mane six up so that they can use the Elements of Harmony to finish off a paralyzed and defeated Satallion, brought down by Shining Armor and his guards. Probably the way it would be presented in-game would be something like "player, push space bar to use the Elements!" or something like that. That way, the player at least feels like they're doing _something_ to resolve everything. It's not normal to have a nonstandard game over be a happy ending, but in this case, it is a happy ending. And I think it's appropriate for a My Little Pony game, considering. (Heck, I could have it as an option after the destroy-the-cores sequence whether they go back to Canterlot or not-every time the player dies in the fight against Satallion, the option is there to go back to Canterlot. I might as well make Satallion an optional boss, considering.)

One thing that strikes me about this is that my version of Celestia has just as many issues as any one of the mane six-probably more issues, in fact. She's got a lot of repressed guilt (repressed _everything_, actually), a crippling phobia, and she _knows_ she has these issues. In the cartoon, she comes across as the most balanced individual in the series, and in a lot of ways, she is-she's genuinely picked up a lot of knowledge and wisdom over the centuries, but in this fic, she's still got issues underneath it all. In a way, that helps to humanize her-uh, so to speak. But it also leaves her very vulnerable. (Which is _perfect_ for a writer like me to add some drama!)

One of the sequels I considered writing, but thought better of it, was a comedy/WAFF called "The Sacking Out of Princess Celestia", where the mane six try to help Celestia get over her phobia of rain. "Sacking Out" is a real-life horsemanship term for desensitizing a horse to something that would otherwise scare them. Real-life horses are naturally high-strung creatures that are generally afraid of _any_ new sight or sound; if they saw you enter their pasture with a long coat flapping in the breeze on a cold, winter day, they'd be afraid of that coat. It gets better: even if they'd seen it on you before while you had it all buttoned up so it can't flap around, and they weren't afraid of the coat while it was buttoned up, it would _still_ scare them if your coat started flapping in the wind. (I'm not even kidding.) They will even be afraid of empty sacks, and desensitizing horses to empty sacks is actually where the phrase "sacking out" came from.

Basically, The Sacking Out of Princess Celestia would be the most bizarre hurt/comfort fic you've ever seen (I hope), with most of the hurt being _chosen_ by Celestia, and most of the comfort being split between the mane six. And the sources of hurt and comfort are incredibly bizarre: imagine Celestia being at one corner of an otherwise-deserted, soundproofed courtyard, cowering, cuddling Twilight like a teddy bear, while Rainbow Dash has a rain cloud that she is reluctantly using to water daffodils in the opposite corner of the courtyard. And Celestia, to mitigate the fear, is dressed head-to-tail in raingear-even when her getting wet _isn't_ a part of the exercise. Celestia feels silly dressed like that, so Twilight makes her feel a little less silly by dressing the same way. And they do a lot of other bizarre things vaguely along those lines to help Celestia's fear, too-I can only be vague because I don't have enough ideas to actually write Sacking Out at this point.

And I don't think I should bother coming up more ideas for it, either (though they keep coming to me whether I like it or not): the more I think about Sacking Out, the more I think it'll be a slew of overused tropes: do we really need another hurt/comfort fic, here? And look at what I've already done in Devil's Stallion: there's cuddling in every chapter except the first-cuddling would be there in Sacking Out, too, since Celestia is pretty thirsty for comfort while she's facing her worst fears and insecurities. There's already a lot of hurt/comfort elements in Devil's Stallion, and I'd rather not throw more out there-it's done a lot, maybe too much, as it is. And then there's all the toilet humor I have in Devil's Stallion-I honestly feel like each individual toilet joke works decently enough to keep it around, but on the whole, I think toilet jokes are a bit overused in this fic-not enough to be a problem, but more than I'm comfortable with. And since Celestia is getting ultra-terrified in Sacking Out, more toilet humor would inevitably be mixed in-Sacking Out would almost be "Devil's Stallion minus the video game elements". I don't think the fandom really needs that.

Revealing more about Celestia's backstory in a kind of a prequel with a sequel framing device might be a better idea for a sequel, though I don't think I want to work on that project at this point; I have other things to work on. (Maybe someday, though.) There's a bit more to Celestia's phobia than just what DisQord did to her, but...well, that's another story. And there's a lot more to be said about just what events transpired between Heart's Warming and the time when Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about the ending to Devil's Stallion; it seems a bit long. It's still pretty close to the ending I had in mind from the beginning-it gave relevance to the "rain grapes" that Pinkie mentioned early in chapter 3 (without that relevance, I'm better off leaving any mention of rain grapes out), and it helps resolve Celestia's phobia. (And Twilight's phobia of hearing Celestia get mad, for that matter.) And one of the things I'd had in mind for the final battle is that Satallion eventually gets things to the point where he'll take the mane six down with him, though I had originally planned for that to be a part of the final battle, not something Satallion tries to do in the aftermath of the battle-I was thinking it would be a giant bubble of lava that completely seals them off from escape. The reason I had that in mind was I actually thought up lyrics and a melody (though not the bass part, which is arguably the most important part) for final battle music. It's called "Stay With Me", and the idea in my head was that, as the player switches ponies, the lyrics and mix of instruments change accordingly-more flute for Fluttershy, more electric guitar for Rainbow Dash, etc. You actually hear the pony you're playing as (well, the pony you have linked to Celestia) singing the song, and the song involves things that they've learned over the course of the adventure-I didn't think the verses through very well, but the chorus is like this:

_Stay with me, stay with me,_

_I'll stay with you until the end!_

_Stay with me, stay with me,_

_Always, forever I'm your friend!_

_I will _[insert character-specific thing here]

_I will be strong,_

_And come what may,_

_I'll carry on,_

_Stay with me! We will see this through!_

_And I will stay with all of you!_

For Applejack, that line would be "I will be true"; for Rainbow Dash, "I will be swift"; for Twilight, "I will be wise"; for Fluttershy, "I will be brave" (daaawwwww!); for Rarity, "I will be here" (fitting if her verse is about putting up with dirt, sweat, etc.); for Pinkie, it's "I'll be myself" (feel free to squee). ...And I'd had in mind that optional characters would be left behind for the final battle; only the bearers of the Elements of Harmony would be there for this battle.

Maybe the lyrics are a little cheesy, but with properly rhythmic and epic music behind it, it could work out. It's nothing the numerous and talented brony composers can't work with-or outdo, for that matter. But anyway, it was easy to get stuck in my head a variation of this where the mane six are fully aware that Satallion has set things up to make sure they die when he dies, and they keep fighting, anyway. So for the second phase of the fight, they're all in physical form, being held aloft by the destabilizing Spell of Unity, and they sing in unison (or _harmony_?):

_Now duty calls for sacrifice,_

_The cost of freedom is our lives,_

_But we will gladly pay that price:_

_It's worth it if our land survives!_

_So hoof in hoof, our story ends,_

_But I'm not scared, 'cuz I'm with friends!_

...Brings tears to my eyes _every time_ I think about it-even though I'd planned all along for them to get out of it alive! (Yeah, emotions are weird.)

So..._all that_ is the reason why the mane six almost died. I ended up making it happen after the final battle and after the Spell of Unity ended, because, what with Celestia planning on going back to Canterlot if their first attempt fails, it doesn't make sense for the mane six to willingly sacrifice themselves to kill Satallion when there's another, less lethal, perfectly viable option.

And no, Satallion wasn't faking them out: he was actually trying to kill the mane six and Celestia with that pyroclastic flow. His magical hold on the geology of Equestria just happened to break moments before the pyroclastic flow got to them, and then his plan C kicked in: use Celestia's phobia of rain against her to make her _suffer_.

An idea that I had for a while, but I've decided to discard (at least for now), is that the storm cloud Satallion had in place as his plan C was magically enhanced so that it would've become bigger and bigger over time, and eventually cover all of Equestria. That just complicates the ending where Shining Armor stops Satallion, though, and adding too much complexity at the end of a story usually isn't a good idea (the above being a potential case in point-sorry), so I've decided to omit that part. It might be worthwhile as an extra bonus cutscene if some additional details are revealed as a result of it, though.

Earlier in my notes, I stated that I thought I might regret not having Satallion as a more in-your-face threat from the beginning. Well, now that I've learned that male black-and-red colored unicorns are a common OC enemy in fanworks (with very little emphasis on the "O"), so I'm starting to think that it's a _good_ thing that he never appears in person until the end. Yes, he's black and fiery _orange_, not black and red, but still, I'd like to avoid overused tropes. It's worth adding that, if I were to switch him out with, say, an Elemental King as the main antagonist, or with a single female demon-horse called Mephistofilly, or even with an entire _species _of hate-demons called Mephistofillies that are _collectively_ the main antagonist, this would still be the same story. So I wouldn't mind if a video game adaptation kicked him out and replaced him altogether.

As far as his personality goes, I did my best to make Satallion a cold, calculating evil genius. He did have a lot of backup plans, but the one thing that he didn't know was that, when a core is destroyed, it becomes gemstones that the mane six can use to heal. If he had known that, then he'd have protected his unfinished cores more thoroughly; he just plain didn't _know_ that Twilight could go on a rampage like she did, healing every wound that the elementals or Gilda inflicted on her. The fact is, once a core is destroyed, Satallion no longer has eyes and ears into the area where the core used to be, so he had no way of knowing that destroyed cores leave gems behind. That's why, despite his genius, his plans against the mane six failed.

In a bizarre twist, I think that maybe Celestia and Satallion actually out-gambitted _each other_ in this ending. On the one hand, yes, Celestia and the mane six saved Equestria, banished Satallion back to hell (that was banishing him and not really killing him; he was never really alive, anyway), and they lived to tell the tale. On the other hand, Satallion's final backup plan to get one last, _painful_ parting blow against Celestia worked, too-though he did end up mostly curing Celestia's phobia.

While the ending is pretty anticlimactic, one redeeming quality of the ending is that it takes the reader through the same emotions the characters go through: first, they're desperate to avert death, trying to think of something, _anything_, or overcome their sudden magically-induced fatigue with cleverness, creativity, or sheer willpower and determination. Then, they're horrified that they're about to die and thinking of all the awful consequences their deaths will have for those they leave behind. Then, they're relieved to the pitch of disappointment and have to remind themselves that the fact that they're still alive is a _good_ thing. Then they're shocked and dismayed and sympathetic to the point of tears because Satallion set up one last trap that plays Celestia's nerves like an electric guitar, then smashes them on the stage floor. Then they feel a little relieved, then they reflect on the situation and lampshade how anticlimactic it is, then finally they get to the jokes, and then they're _laughing_. And the reader is feeling just about the same things as the characters all along: first, the reader is thinking about how the mane six can get out of the path of the pyroclastic flow, then the reader is pondering the consequences of the mane six and Celestia actually dying, and then the reader begins to feel relieved, then the reader is shocked that the troubles aren't over, then the reader is sympathetic with poor Celestia, and probably by the time the ponies are thinking it's anticlimactic, the reader has had the same occur to him or her. Then the jokes come, and the reader is laughing with the mane six! (You've got to admit the cutie mark joke was pretty good.) Hopefully, it does a good job of drawing the reader in and making him or her feel, at least emotionally, like they're really connecting with the characters.

I'd like to add that there's some strong irony in the part where the mane six were crying: they cried because they thought there was nothing they could do to help Celestia. But the fact is, crying was _the_ most helpful thing they could've done: it made Celestia's experience in the storm the polar opposite of her experience with DisQord, since DisQord was _laughing_ the whole time he was making it rain lemonade on her-and being warm and dry under the mane six's raincoats was also a big help for her. (This is why I had Twilight suggest they keep their raincoats in chapter 4.)

I think it's worth adding that I had a lot of other ideas for endings-which of those other ideas would be used for alternate endings in an actual game is up-in-the air, and with a branching storyline, more than one ending is necessary. Heck, in a longer game, there'd probably be _way_ more branches than the ones I have in this narrative; I'll need _way_ more endings than this! Nevertheless, I'll list these other endings that have occurred to me here:

1) Actually have the mane six die and be absorbed into Satallion's good counterpart who is named-wait for it-Amáre. (Pronounced "uh-MAH-ray".) She's the amalgamation of all the love of all the ponies who've died, and is much younger and not as strong as Satallion, since ponies lived in hate and war for _far_ longer than they lived in love and harmony. She's very benevolent, and being a part of her is very restful, and it lets Celestia see her departed parents and Starswirl. Though Luna needs to deal with the fact that Celestia is gone. (Note: having the female afterlife-pony be the good one and the male one be the bad one isn't intended to be a commentary on gender roles or feminism or sexism or anything like that: it's just that the word "Satan" combines easily with "stallion", and "Amáre" sounds a bit like some Latin-based words for "love", and makes a good pun on the word "mare".)

2) Variation of (1): Celestia somehow draws strength away from the mane six-they recognize that Equestria needs her more than it needs them-and Luna needs Celestia, too-and they sacrifice their strength so she'll surivive. Celestia witnesses the mane six die, either to lava or to the pyroclastic flow, and then sees them join Amáre, and Amáre sees Celestia, too, and outright calls Celestia "mama", because Celestia's presence is what keeps souls heading towards Amáre- Amáre owes a lot of her existence to Celestia. Maybe Celestia gets some visitations from Starswirl, her parents, and perhaps others. But in the end, Celestia survives, and knows that the mane six Died Happily Ever After (another trope).

3) Another variation of (1): Amáre absorbs Celestia and the mane six, but Celestia, recognizing that Luna needs her, asks to be allowed to visit her in a dream to reassure her that she's able to lead and that Celestia herself is all right. This dream-visitation requires so much power that it requires that a soul be drained of energy, leaving the soul in a coma-like state. Twilight volunteers, and for centuries, her unconscious soul is dragged around Heaven by her friends-they take her everywhere they go. If they have a picnic, they smear cupcake frosting on her lips so she'll be able to enjoy at least some tastes with them. Occasionally, she smiles while she's unconscious, and when she does, there is much rejoicing.

4) Another variation of (2): Amáre recognizes that the mane six would rather live out the rest of their years than be with her immediately, and they have done a wonderful service for her by keeping Celestia alive, so she sacrifices an enormous amount of her magical power to bring one of the mane six to life-the player chooses which and sees a different ending depending on which one they pick. ...Alternatively, she revives them all, but either way, the act of reviving leaves Amáre very weakened (these afterlife ponies aren't really that powerful and can't really be called gods, though I must admit the question of exactly _how_ powerful Amáre is depends on which of these possible endings becomes canon). But the amalgamated afterlives of _other_ species that live in Equestria besides ponies, like cows, pigs, griffons, goats, and donkeys, also lend power or help to Amáre in her weakness (either re-powering Amáre or ushering pony souls to her, since she can't claim them herself), since Celestia is also providing those "heavens" with a steady stream of souls.

5) Celestia has just enough power to cast a spell on herself and the mane six to turn them into stone. This allows them to survive the pyroclastic flow, but Luna has trouble figuring out how to free them from the petrification spell, so they remain petrified for a long time-on the order of months or years. They're conscious the entire time, and everypony knows it, so the families of the mane six visit often, even every day. Spike reads to them every day, and at one point, Sweetie Belle sings for them, and in singing, earns her cutie mark. This extracts tears from statue!Rarity's eyes, and either helps to break the spell, or out-and-out breaks it in and of itself. (To a troper, the families of the mane six are trying to subvert the And I Must Scream trope.)

...Tropers are, at this point, probably going to be telling me that Tropes Are Not Good: just because it's a pattern in fiction that they've identified and labeled doesn't mean I should include it. Well, these ideas can (and in most cases most likely _will_) be discarded; I'm just throwing them out here in the author's notes for you to look at.

5) As stated in previous author's notes, have a variation of the canonical ending where Satallion never learns of Celestia's phobia. The ending is a little less anticlimactic, but Celestia and the mane six still need to be picked up by Shining Armor. (A variation: they fall asleep instead of writing to Spike, and Twilight's mother in Canterlot senses that Satallion is gone, so after several hours, Shining Armor sends out search parties, and they find Celestia asleep, and the mane six asleep under her wings. Cue fangirls squeeing at the cuteness-heck, the cuteness gives the in-universe characters who find them pause!)

6) A variation of the canonical ending where Celestia never out-and-out tells the mane six that she gave pegasi the ability to move clouds because of her phobia-she holds that in. Satallion finds out that she has the phobia, nonetheless, and in her distress, Celestia confesses all to one or more of the mane six while they're being rained on by Satallion's final trap. This actually makes Celestia afraid of the mane six, because she thinks that she'll lose everything if they say a word to anyone. She gets more and more aloof, and this has some effect over time on Equestria (though it takes generations for it to show up). The mane six either don't believe Celestia, thinking she was so distressed, she was babbling about imaginary things, or else they don't consider what Celestia said to be that important and never realize how soul-shattering it is for her. (A variation: Twilight knows full well how hurt Celestia is, and how awkward a position it puts Celestia in that she knows her secret. So Twilight lies through her teeth and says that the storm was so loud, she couldn't understand a word of what Celestia said-all so that Celestia will feel comfortable.)

As heartwarming as all this plot is, I'd like to say more about the gameplay-in particular, about the way enemies come at you: I'd had in mind for the actual game adaptation that, for any area where corrupted ponies are supposed to come after you, there's an enemy-spawning system that creates ponies just offscreen, and it keeps track of what kinds of enemies are on-screen, how many of them there are, and how often they should be spawned. (I could see this system being adjustable to raise or lower the game's difficulty, too.) It also de-spawns enemies who leave the screen, such as ponies that Twilight uncorrupts who run away, or ponies that Rarity freezes that you get too far away from. And yes, Pinkie-sense will warn you when an enemy is about to spawn.

I've also thought of some variations of the enemies-already I mentioned different sorts of enemies, for instance, some unicorns have a projectile attack, pegasi are flying enemies who can't fly if they get too wet, and there's a variation of pegasi who have umbrellas who won't get wet until Rainbow Dash uses her wind powers to remove their umbrellas. Then there's the palace guard: I'm thinking that they should take more arrows to uncorrupt, but when you do uncorrupt them, they taunt enemies off of you (i.e. they shout to make the enemies chase them instead of you). Maybe even some palace guards fire Arrows of Light of their own; who knows? I guess there could be other variations, too.

And yes: that pony-spawning system could be programmed to select from ponies within a pool of background ponies, e.g. Doctor Whooves (who I think is really named Time Turner), Octavia, Lyra Heartstrings, Bon Bon, Carrot Top/Golden Harvest, and the like. I'll probably need to have Time Turner, Lyra, Carrot Top/Golden Harvest, and Bon Bon as common enemies in Ponyville...

Come to think of it, one thing I regret is _not_ having Octavia in this whole thing-probably a real game adaptation would require that I have her in, at least as a Canterlot boss. There's a lot of music out there for Octavia! And the same goes for DJ-PON3/Vinyl Scratch, too, for that matter. Actually, adding a level where the mane six are going to Manehattan for a music festival, then fight the music-themed background ponies, seems like it'd be perfect, though I couldn't fit something like that into a narrative _this_ high-strung: I can't imagine Twilight and company going to a music festival in the middle of a 36 hour night while they _know_ a demon is attacking Equestria, and that every second counts because his power can grow exponentially. If I went with a more sandbox-style approach to the overall game, though, where the plot is revealed little-by-little, then a Manehattan level where they go to a festival and encounter corrupted musicians would work perfectly. Especially as an early level.

I'd also like to mention an elephant in the room: where the heck did the scroll come from that Celesita got the spell of unity from in the first place? To be honest, I've not decided, yet, or hardly even thought it out at all. I can see it going two ways: either (a) there was another set of adventures, had by ponies from eons past (perfect opportunity to drag G-1 into it) where Amáre gave some of her power to save ponykind from Satallion, or (b) Celestia, at some future point, sends a copy of that ancient scroll into the past, containing all the information she's gathered. I'm not sure if an author admitting he's not decided on something mysterious is really the right way to go, but oh, well.

Alternatively, I might take out the idea that she found a scroll altogether, and instead say that she _invented_ the Spell of Unity as a kind of an extension of the Elements of Harmony-I could say that the Elements are a very malleable force of good that adapt to whoever is using them, and that while they manifest as jewels for Twilight and her friends, they manifested far differently for her and Luna.

I'd like to add that it's finally dawned on me how much I could stretch out the Canterlot level if I really wanted to. I discussed in greater detail what I could've done with the Crystal Caves beneath Canterlot, but not much about what I could've done with the castle itself (beyond realizing that I should've done _something_ with the castle interior!). Canonically, the castle was just the background for the final fight with Nightmare Moon, and as badass and appropriate as that is, I still feel like I should've had the castle interior be a level or a part of a level.

But now, I have some more ideas about what I could've done with that castle: I began thinking about different lieutenants that Shining Armor might have under his command-other members of the royal guard that would be called upon to act in the non-standard ending where Shining Armor and his guard have to defeat Satallion for you, since you can't do it yourself. They're all badass, but they have various specialties. I came up with names and general ideas, and they're mostly named after pieces of armor: Buckler is an absolutely HUGE earth pony with heavy armor; Greaves is a cold sniper who you _think_ will turn evil, but he never does (bar the corruption), and I've not decided whether he's a unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony; and I've thought of two other names: Spaulder and Targe—I've not decided what their skill sets are, yet. One other character I've thought of is Naginata, a female who's named after a type of pole weapon from Japan (basically a blade on a stick, which is today thought of as a "girly weapon" because its length allows for leverage that makes up for any physical weakness on the part of the wielder). I suppose it's a testament to sexism that, as far as I'm concerned, her main feature is that she's a she. My excuse: I came up with her because I wanted a female member of the guard to interview Celestia while she's bathing, so that the royal guard can get information from Celestia while she and the mane six are getting ready for bed in the non-standard game over where you let the army do the work. Then again, if she's a unicorn who fights with a Naginata, her movements and attacks could be almost exactly like those of Colgate from the Pony Platforming Project III, which would be a PERFECT shout-out to that game!

Anyhow, back to the length of the Canterlot level: if I say the castle's exits are sealed shut, that there are too many guards in the air for them to risk flying out of the castle (as they "canonically" do in this fic), and that there was a magical seal on the doors to the castle that won't break until the lieutenants are defeated-then I'll essentially have created a new level, all inside the castle! Indeed, if I set things up so that there's a lot of variety of environments inside the castle (the scullery and servant's quarters, the dungeons, the archives, the keep, the audience chamber, the courtyard, etc.), then the castle could be a level unto itself as much as Everfree Forest or Cloudsdale was a level! And once you beat the final boss (whoever that turns out to be-Shining Armor and Cadence would've been perfect if they weren't already bosses in Canterlot), then the castle is secured-the same magic that sealed the exits to keep you in also keeps corrupted ponies out.

It's hard to imagine how this would work with my current model for how the final game should work; I'd had in mind a kind of a sandbox game where you take on missions, and each mission is a short-to-medium length level. But take a look at Cloudsdale and Canterlot: those are levels that have multiple video game setting themes to them. Cloudsdale is a cloud, ice, cityscape, and mechanical level all rolled into one, and Canterlot is a city, ice, castle, and underground level with a hint of a train level. Both of them can be logically divided into smaller sub-levels to the point where either one of them is basically like one of the worlds from a Super Mario 2D game-Cloudsdale's outskirts and town square are like world 3-1, then the training grounds and the road leading toward them are world 3-2, then getting the towels and blankets is world 3-3, then the ascent to the top of Cloudsdale is world 3-4, then (if there are enough obstacles) the descent to the weather factory is world 3-5, and the weather factory itself is world 3-6. That's a lot longer than you'd expect a mission from a sandbox game to be! I'm really starting to wonder what genre the game will end up being; in the end, it might be a platformer that has some sandbox elements in between worlds. That's got more platforming action to it than what I had in mind before I realized this, and what I had in mind before I realized this was that the final game would be a sandbox game that _can_ play like a classic platformer...

Oh, well. As long as the final product is fun and engaging, who cares if it straddles a genre line or two? ...Actually, if I included everything I'd thought of so far-sandbox elements where you can go just about anywhere, side missions like defeating monsters, RPG elements where you can craft your own clothing items that can boost your stats, and loooong classic platforming levels the size of Super Mario 2D words-the game would be pretty much unclassifiable. But if it's fun, _who cares_?!

DELETED SCENE:

_Just after the defeat of Satallion. For a while, I considered making this the canonical ending instead of the storm-ending where Celestia begins to overcome her phobia. Then I realized that I had too much foreshadowing of the storm ending to change my mind at this point, so I made this a non-canonical ending and decided to put it here, instead. On the plus side, it's concise, so it avoids the ending fatigue of the canonical ending. On the minus side, it doesn't quite fit in with all the foreshadowing._

Celestia sneezed. "Though...it's...cold..."

Twilight noted that the night had only gotten colder and colder, since Celestia had had no opportunity to raise the sun. If only they had a way to keep warm...! Wait; they did! "Guys...we still have our raincoats from Cloudsdale! Maybe we can use those to keep warm?"

"But then what'll the Princess do?" Fluttershy asked.

Pinkie suggested, "What if we all snuggle up under her wings, and then we put the raincoats on her back like a blanket to keep her warm?"

Rarity gasped, "Is it proper for us to presume to..._snuggle_ with a _Princess_?"

Celestia smiled. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

So there were two under one wing, three under the other, raincoats and even their empty saddlebags spread over Celestia's back, and Twilight snuggled under her chin. "Can we go to sleep, now?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"It...doesn't seem right," Celestia thought aloud. "Luna and Shining Armor and Cadence are so worried about us. We're tired; I'd like to sleep, but...it _hurts_ to worry about somepony you care about. And it hurts to know somepony you care about it hurting."

Twilight moaned her agreement; she'd spent all day worrying, and the thought that someone would be kind enough to spare her that suffering was heartwarming.

"Applebloom 'n' Big Mack 'n' Granny Smith must be shakin' in their horseshoes on account 'a' me," Applejack said. "I wish I could tell them I'm not hurt, 'n' that I'm just...tired."

"Mummy and Daddy must be worried sick," Rarity added. "Sweetie Belle, too."

Twilight thought of her own loved ones. "I wonder how my mom and dad are doing? And Shining Armor..." she chuckled. "He's smart, but he likes to be strong. He's probably worried halfway to crazy, but taking it out on his guards, telling them to be vigilant five times every minute. And Spike...I haven't seen him since I left this morning, when you sent me the letter-!"

Twilight gasped. "We-we _can_ tell someone we're okay! I've got parchments in my bag; if we can just send one little letter to Spike, he'll know we're okay! They'll all be in Canterlot; Shining Armor and Mom and Dad know that we send letters through him all the time! Maybe they'll be watching him, waiting for a letter-" Twilight chuckled. "Even if they didn't think of that, he could hand it to any guard, and it'd go straight to Shining Armor before you can say 'micromanagement'!"

They all laughed. Celestia used what little was left of her horn magic to lift a parchment out of Twilight's bag, hastily write a brief note, and send it:

_Dear Spike,_

_We won, but are so tired. Have them get us._

She didn't even sign it, but used the last of her dwindling magic to send the scroll. Celestia sighed in exhaustion, and her head flopped down onto Twilight's shoulder.

After a few minutes, Rarity asked, "Do you think it'll take long?"

At that, in a flash, they were surrounded by pony-sized creatures, each of them covered in a heavy, hooded cloak. The sight of them was unsettling, but Twilight tried to assure herself, _Of course they're wearing huge, hooded cloaks! It's freezing! I wish I had a big cloak, too!_ She got her wish almost immediately; one of the cloaked stallions rushed toward her and took his own cloak off, covering her back with it-and it was her brother, Shining Armor!

"It's them! Lookouts, keep an eagle eye on _everything_! Mom, Dad, Cadence-we should do this here, away from the populace, as a precaution."

The rest of Twilight's family took down their hoods and approached Celestia. "We know you're exhausted, Aunt Tia, but...our people await the dawn."

Celestia grunted her agreement. Twilight saw her family touch their horns to Celestia's and give her magical power, and with that power, Celestia raised the sun for the first time in well over 24 hours. The light was downright blinding after being in the dark night for so long; Twilight's eyes just couldn't adjust.

Shining Armor, panting, turned to his mother. "You're sure you can't detect any trace of Satallion?"

She shook her head. "None at all; he's gone."

Shining Armor sighed and smiled happily. "Finally...it's over." He looked down at Twilight. "Need anything, sis?"

Twilight moaned back, "I'll take twenty-four hours of sleep, please!"

Shining Armor laughed. "Guards...take us back."

With that, the guards began their teleportation spells, and the whole contingent, along with the Princesses, Twilight, and her friends, disappeared.

ALTERNATE ENDING:

The next thing Twilight knew, she had reappeared in the same valley where she had destroyed all the nascent cores in a blur of adrenaline: Satallion had killed them once again.

Panting, Celestia asked, "How many sunstones do we have left?"

Rarity switched out and opened her saddle bag. She gasped. "That-that death used up the last one!"

Celestia popped out into physical form. "All right then...time to switch to plan B: we're going to go back to Canterlot, turn all the information we have over to the royal guard, and _rest_!"

"Finally!" Rainbow Dash yawned. "I'll fight as long as the rest of you guys want to keep going, but I'm so tired, right now, feel like I could start _hibernating_!"

"And I'm in _dire_ need of a bath!" Rarity added. "I can't remember the last time I went this long without cleaning my poor coat...!"

"Yeah," Twilight halfheartedly agreed.

Celestia held Twilight's spirit orb in her hoof and asked, "What's wrong, Twilight?"

"I...I know that going back now is the right choice to make. I know that, without the sunstones, it's just not worth the risk to try to fight him again, but...I'm still a little disappointed that we...well..._failed_."

Celestia shook her head. "_Please_ don't think of this as failure, Twilight. It's true: we tried to stop Satallion, ourselves, and I'll admit we _didn't_ succeed in doing that. But think of all the things we _did_ succeed at since we left the council at Canterlot! By destroying his unfinished cores, we've set Satallion's operations back _months_, we've left his plans in ruins, and we've gathered a great deal of _very_ valuable information-information that could well allow our army to end the war! And now, we can finally _rest_ from all the hard work and fighting we've been doing all night! Oh-_finally_ being able to rest feels like a great victory in itself! Aren't you tired, Twilight?"

"Yes...very..."

Celestia rubbed Twilight's spirit against her cheek. "I'm a little disappointed, too, that this war isn't already over. But-as you said, the best thing for us to do is go back. _Please_ don't let this dampen your spirits; we did get a lot done, even if it wasn't everything we'd wanted."

"Okay," was all Twilight could think to say in response.

Celestia began a teleportation spell that brought her just outside Shining Armor's forcefield. She appeared right in front of several palace guards, just outside one of the main thoroughfares of the city. One look down that road, and Twilight could tell that the city was _packed_: there wasn't enough room indoors for everypony to sleep, so many families had to lie down in the _streets_. They were wrapped up in blankets to keep warm, too, which almost gave the whole place the look of a slum full of impoverished, homeless ponies. Twilight found the sight unsettling, and she looked up at Celestia-she looked just as unsettled as Twilight, even though both of them knew that this wasn't what it looked like at all.

One of the palace guards immediately took off and flew towards the palace-a messenger probably-and the others all aimed their spears at Celestia. "What's the password?" one demanded.

Celestia whispered back, "Lapis lazuli," and the guards lowered their spears.

"Forgive us, Your Highness, but we will _need_ to make sure it's you," the guard added.

In a flash, Twilight's mother and several other unicorn wizards and enchantresses appeared, alongside Princess Luna, Cadence, Spike, and Shining Armor. The unicorns focused their magic on Celestia, sending detection spell after detection spell over her, and over the surrounding area, as well-they wanted to be triple-sure that it was safe to let them in. After a few moments, Twilight's mother sighed in relief and bowed respectfully. "It's them!"

Shining Armor opened a hole in the forcefield for them to come through, and it seemed that every pony in the whole of Equestria rose and bowed their heads to Celestia.

Celestia looked around at the people she had protected and nurtured-the nation she had spent a thousand years building and maintaining. Pegasi, too, were bowing to her-there was a family on every roof, and _certainly_ word had reached them, by now, that Celestia had been using their entire race for centuries. Yet they _continued_ to bow to her-in _reverence and respect_!? Tears dripped from Celestia's eyes as she realized that the hardened warriors and hardened hearts of all ponykind from a thousand years ago had been softened into a kind, gentle, _forgiving_ race-a race prepared to forgive her every lie! And all this softening of hearts-was because of _her_!

Celestia's thoughts were interrupted as Luna rushed toward her and buried her face in Celestia's sooty shoulder. Celestia spread her wing over Luna's back and gently kissed her. "We're all right, Luna. I'd _never_ leave you alone."

"Is it over, Princess?" Shining Armor asked.

Celestia realized that the question had to be burning in everypony's mind, and she didn't want to keep her beloved people in suspense. She shook her head. "No, it's _not_ over. We ran out of sunstones trying to defeat him, but before that, we set his plans back by _months_. He was growing cores in that volcanic caldera, and we destroyed them all!

"There's more: when a core is not yet complete, Arrows of Light _alone_ can destroy it-the Elements of Harmony aren't necessary!"

"So," Shining Armor continued the thought, "Our army _actually has a chance_ against him!"

Celestia nodded. "That's why we're going to transfer all the information we have over to you, so that the palace guard and the army can keep him in check or bring him down...while the seven of us rest."

Shining Armor nodded. He looked at the guards next to him and said, "Tell _everypony_: Plan C is _green_. Go get everything ready-but make _sure_ that everypony is briefed on whatever information Celestia is about to give us _before_ they head out!" The guards nodded and teleported away.

Celestia chuckled, interrupting Shining Armor's train of thought.

"Princess?" he asked.

"You were planning on taking action, yourself, all along, weren't you?"

"...It...seemed like the logical thing to do to take every precaution. I've had scribes copying the scroll you found, just in case we needed to cast the Spell of Unity on the army."

"That's not what I ordered!" Celesita pointed out-in an almost sing-song tone.

"You're...not mad, are you, Milady?"

Celestia shook her head. "Not at all, in fact, it's good that you did this, and we both know it. I hope you'll forgive me for finding it so amusing that you're so...well, _desperate_ to feel useful. Don't feel bad about it in any case; your attitude is about to pay off for Equestria."

Shining Armor paused, then turned to the citizens behind him. He shouted, "The demon yet lives; but based on information that we're still receiving, our army may be able to stop him! The nature of the protective spells necessary for facing him forces us to have _six_ ponies in spirit form for every _one_ pony that fights him-this severely reduces the numbers with which we can face him. We're accepting all able-bodied volunteers with the strength, speed, and magic to aid us in _bringing him down_!"

The whole city was filled with a chorus of raised hooves and shouts of, "I volunteer! I'll fight for Equestria!" Celestia's eyes teared up again at the sight of all these ponies of every description volunteering for service. She realized that the unity of Equestria, the very thing for which she lived, was now one of the most precious things to her people, and they were prepared to risk their lives to defend it: her life, her position as princess, and all her hard work had all been-and were continuing to be-a _spectacular_ success!

Shining Armor motioned for silence, and the crowd quieted down. "All able-bodied volunteers, line up outside the barracks! There are _many_ preparations to be made, not the least of which is getting information from the Princess and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony about what this demon is capable of and how he works. Be prepared, but be patient. We _have_ to do this right!"

It seemed like the city moved as one to the barracks, though there were a lot of mothers and fathers who stayed behind to stay with their children.

Shining Armor turned to an earth pony mare standing next to him. "Naginata-the Princess, my sister, and her friends, are exhausted. They're going to need to go straight to the baths to get ready for bed, but we still need information from them. Teleport with them to the baths, and get down as much information about Satallion, how he operates, what his motives are, and what his abilities are."

Naginata saluted, and with that, Luna teleported herself, Celestia, Rarity, and Naginata into the royal bath.

One by one, each of Twilight's friends took off their saddlebags and waded into the bathwater, and let the maids scrub them clean of all the soot, sweat, and grime that their adventure had covered them with. All the while, Naginata asked question after question to try to understand what Satallion was capable of, what his attacks were, where he might go next. Try as she might, Twilight couldn't pay attention to the conversation; she was just too tired, too relieved, and too sad. Before she knew it, all seven of them had had their baths and had been towelled off by the maids. Twilight shuffled along next to Celestia, not really paying attention to where they were going. But when they arrived, Twilight gasped: Celestia was motioning for Twilight to crawl into _the royal bed_!

"Twilight, it's all right-besides, there really isn't a way to avoid this. We can't separate now; the Spell of Unity won't allow it!"

Twilight bit her lip, then sighed and smiled, knowing that there was no other way. She cilmbed into the bed and curled up, snuggled next to the Princess's chest. Everything felt so soft and warm and clean; she closed her eyes...

And the next thing she knew, she heard the familiar voice of her foalsitter: "Twilight! Tia! Wake up! They've _got_ him!"

Twilight opened her eyes. She was still very, very tired and sleepy, but she knew this was important.

Celestia stirred from her sleep and looked at Cadence. "We're awake," she whispered.

"Shiny and his soldiers have captured Satallion; they've got him paralyzed outside the city! We've got a carriage waiting to take you there so you can use the Elements of Harmony to finish him off!"

Without another word, Celestia and Twilight got up, put on slippers and robes and cloaks, and walked with Cadence down to the main gate of the palace. As they rode to the city's outskirts, Celestia asked, "Were there any casualties?"

Cadence shook her head. "Whenever any one of our teams ran out of sunstones, they headed back."

Twilight couldn't help but wonder aloud, "What happens when there's more than one group of ponies with the Spell of Unity on them, and the time-reversal effect happens? Do all the ponies go flying back to where they were before, or only the ones connected to the one who died? I mean, how does time travel work when there's more than one observer?"

Cadence shook her head. "You'll have to ask the guards and soldiers who went out; I don't know."

Rainbow Dash chuckled. "Twilight, stop asking science questions-if you keep asking them now, you'll start asking them in your sleep! And I don't want to be woken up in the middle of the night by you asking about the integer of pi or something like that!"

"Pi's not an integer; it's an irrational real number! It's the ratio of a circle's circumference divided by-"

"Twilight?" Rainbow Dash interrupted.

"What?"

"_No_."

"...Okay."

They came up on the outskirts of town, and it seemed like every pony was staring at something just outside the forcefield. The crowd cleared away as they heard the shouts of "Make way for the Princess!" from the guards, and Celestia looked and saw, crumpled on the ground, the very demon she'd seen before in her dreams as a young mare. He had two broken stumps on his forehead, where there had to have been horns, once. His wings were tattered and bruised, and his head was crooked in a direction that didn't seem natural at all. The whole sight of him made Twilight wonder whether he was even alive, but when she saw his evilly glowing eyes blink at the sight of Celestia, she knew he was alive, all right-or at least he something _like_ alive, since the concept of life didn't quite apply to something that was made of the souls of dead ponies.

Satallion began to make some noises and move his lips, as if to say something, but the words weren't clear at all. Celestia frowned, and Twilight's five friends surged into material form. A wave of rainbow-colored light flew into Satallion, and he was once and for all banished from the material world. Slowly, cheering began as the people of Equestria realized that the crisis was finally over, they were finally safe, and they could all finally go home.

Twilight smiled and sighed in relief. She felt a little too tired to be caught up in the moment, and apparently, Shining Armor sensed it. He walked up to Twilight, nuzzled her, and said to her, "Sleep tight, sis. We did it; it's over."

Twilight nuzzled him back, but asked, "How did you paralyze him, anyway?"

He smiled. "I think you already know," he answered smugly, cracking his neck. As the memory of the conversation when Twilight first explained what was going on to her brother flooded back into her mind, he said what she was thinking: "I _told_ you I'd break his neck!"

Twilight silently noted that her brother was not one to be trifled with, and smiled.

"Can we end the Spell of Unity now, yer Highness?" Applejack asked. "Don't get me wrong; I don't mind spendin' time with you an' my friends, but...I think my family an' I would rest better if I was sleeping in the same place as them, an' I think everypony's family is missing them."

"_No_," Shining Armor emphatically insisted. "Trust me; it's _not_ a good idea. Ending the Spell of Unity causes all the ponies that were under its effect to become suddenly exhausted. I had seven of my strongest troops nearly faint when they ended the Spell of Unity after Satallion was defeated. You're all tired already; there's no telling what effect it would have if you ended the Spell of Unity now. It's not worth the risk. Not yet. Our troops have decided to stagger when we end the Spell of Unity, so that there will always be enough to protect the city."

Celestia nodded. "Thank you for letting us know, Captain. We...shall retire. But first..." Celestia focused her magic and raised the sun for the first time in over 24 hours. "Our people will have light for their journeys home."

The Spell of Unity kicked and, and it was only Twilight and Celestia on the carriage. They looked at each other and sighed, each knowing the other was eager to finish sleeping. Celestia motioned for them to return to the palace, and away they went.

When Twilight finally climbed back into bed, she realized that she went to bed with a frown earlier, because she didn't know if Equestria would be safe. Now she went to bed with a smile, because she knew it would be safe. Some hint in the back of her mind told her that there were a lot of details to sort through-a lot of families wouldn't be able to leave Canterlot because their fathers and mothers would be bound to a soldier who couldn't end the Spell of Unity yet. Her own sleep cycle would be off for a long time, since she was going to bed at daybreak, now. _But_, she thought, _first things first. Sleep._

She curled up next to the Princess's warm chest, closed her eyes, and pleasant dreams greeted her for the rest of that day.


End file.
